Sword Art Online: Hollowed Out
by SkrallSaw
Summary: Death isn't always escape from Sword Art Online, some are damned to remain in the game until they die with it. Lukas, once a beta tester and front line fighter is damned to this fate, and meets a player who shouldn't be there in the first place. Can he save his new friend, and can he even save himself. Rated T for language.
1. Prologue

Yep this is an OC story, BTW, my OC is Swedish so any **"Bold Dialogue"** means speaking in Swedish, I'm doing this because I know nobody who speaks Swedish and I don't trust google translate.

Disclaimer: All I own are the OC's nothing else.

* * *

I started to feel a cool breeze and grass on my face. I heard birds chirping and leaves rustling in the wind. Slowly, I sat up and looked around. I was deep in a forest, no one in sight. Based on my inventory I was still in SAO. My map data said I'm at "Syvendy's Forest Area - Hollow Area". This was not in the beta, I doubt even Argo herself knows about this. I still had supply of crystals. I tried teleporting to floor 1, where my main base is located, but I had no luck.

"Shit." I swore. I figured that actually exploring would do some good.

After walking for what felt like hours, I arrived in what appeared to be a fruit orchard. I walked under a tree, when I felt someone was watching me. Dodging a large axe, I pulled out dagger. I recognized the attacker, he was Mentha, one of the several beta testers, he ruined the experience for a lot of players in the beta, he was a griefer and a PK'er. Of course that was before PK'ing was considered murder.

"Well if it isn't Lukas, still can't speak?" He said with his typical "trying to start a fight tone", one I've heard time and time again. He decided to jab at my accent, since I'm from Sweden.

"If it isn't the scrub who couldn't get past the first floor in the beta...nice axe, compensating for something?"

"You asked for it Swed!" He readied his axe and swung it at me. I dodged his swings, when he missed a baseball bat swing and I went for his exposed left flank. It landed and he certainly felt it. He tried to shake me off, but a long weapon doesn't help much when you're enemy is on the inside. I finished him with a slice to the throat, he vanished into pixels. I put away my dagger and kept going, I looked around and several mobs looked foreign to the game and I didn't see a dungeon anywhere.

"Why can't I shake this feeling I'm not in Aincrad anymore...?"

 ** _Aincrad a few months earlier_**

It was at least 9 months ago when I joined the assault team. Let's just say things started to feel a whole lot like school was, a lot of getting into fights, although less physical. The only other I got along with were Klein, leader of Fuurin Kazan, Agil, shop owner and probably one of the biggest guys I've seen, and Kirito, fellow beta tester and better known as the Black Swordsman. I honestly think a lot of these players on these teams probably would try and kill me if they thought they could get away with it, heck I bet the vice commander, Asuna, would allow it, we don't really have the greatest of relationships. Let's just say I've had to stop myself from slapping her once or twice. I tried to avoid causing too much trouble since Krito might take a good amount of heat, it's because of him I was even part of the group.

That day an old friend was paying the assault team a visit. His name was Frukt, I met him in the old guild I was in. Frukt had a heavy addiction to soda pop, in fact his avatar's name is actually based on a brand of Russian soda. Frukt, was probably the best spy in SAO, if you needed someone to infiltrate a guild, or acquire dirt on someone, he was your guy. Don't worry he would never stab his friends in the back.

"Hey Frukt, what brings you here?"

"Just business... I've got information on Laughing Coffin I was asked for." Yep the assault team was planning a crusade against Laughing Coffin, the murder guild, I don't have good history with this guild.

After the briefing

"Hey Kirito can I talk to you real quick?"

"Oh, sure, what is it Lukas?"

"I know the orders were to capture them, but any of them cross blades with me, I'm killing them...I want to know you won't stop me."

"...Alright, but I don't think it will sit well with the others."

"Heh, since when have they gave a shit about what I did?" I decided to get myself ready. Little did I know that would be the last time I would see them in SAO.

 ** _The Crusade Begins_**

Frukt had told the assault team about the guilds base, a cave in one of the lower floors. The one who led us thought that that they would surrender to a higher leveled team, he was dead wrong. The members of the guild launched an ambush on the assault team. At least 4 of the crusade members had been killed. At least 6 of the Player Killers were killed, I probably killed at least a third of that number. A third LC grunt tried to get me from behind. I countered with a punch to the gut and plunging my dagger through his neck. I felt a hand grab my shoulder, apparently Kirito was right about my actions not sitting well with the others, as high and mighty Asuna decided to confront me.

"What are you doing we supposed to-!"

"Get off me!" I shoved her aside. I watched as Klein managed to apprehend a few grunts, I watched Kirito kill a grunt. Of course I was snapped back to the situation at hand pretty quickly

"Traitor!" I turned to see and sword wielding grunt charge me. I blocked his blade and kicked him back. He came at me again with an overhead slash I stabbed my blade into his arm causing him to drop his sword. I grabbed his sword and slashed him in half.

Eleven or so of the crusaders died at least 20 LC members died, I killed 5 of them.

"So what I didn't follow orders, those guys deserve the death penalty!" I was having it out with the Vice Commander again. She was giving me shit about not sticking to the plan.

"Even if they did you're no better by killing them!" She spat back at me, I decided to leave it at that.

" **I'm sick and tired of this shit!"** I said out loud but no one understood it.

 _ **Back at the Hollow Area**_

Last thing I remember was being sent on a mission with Kirito to scout ot the area the crusaders struck, since then my mind's been hitting a wall. Did something happen during that mission? I thought I would try and contact Kirito or Frukt, but for whatever reason the message button was gone.

" **Just great, fucking great."** I muttered to myself. I did notice that based on what Frukt's location said, it looked like the assault team passed floor 74. Hard to believe it's been over 2 years already. I closed my menu and kept moving.

* * *

Well theres the prologue, what I'm trying to do is bridge the gap between canon SAO and non cannon SAO Hollow Fragment, give me some critique, I'm not a big writer so feedback helps.


	2. Hollow Area

Remember " **Bold Dialogue** " means speaking in Swedish, unless stated otherwise.

* * *

I was whistling some tune that was often played at my church back in Sweden. Even though I doubt any prayers would make it past this game, every night I pray for my sibling's safety and chance I could see them again. Soon enough I felt someone or something was coming my way. I turned to see a girl wearing a blue hooded coat and dandelion colored hair running from something, she noticed I was in front of her about the same time I turned. She crashed into me. We both went to the ground, she apparently thought I was a threat since she drew her weapon, a swordbreaker, and charged me.

"Oh fuck." I muttered as I dodged her first two attacks. I pulled out my own dagger, and waited for her to leave an opening. I dodged a thrust to my neck, and countered with a left hook, flooring her. I went for my own attack while she was grounded, but she rolled out of the way. She got up again and we rushed at each other. Then we cut off our attacks when we had to jump out of the way of an even bigger problem. It was a Large creature that looked like a skeletal centipede, its front arms had scythe like blades. It looked like it could easily be a floor boss.

"Damn...I thought I'd given that thing the slip. I guess I've got no choice but to take it on." I heard my attacker say, I guess that answers what she was running from.

"Hey, are these common around here!?"

"I'm not interested in talking to the likes of you." She rudely responded.

"Likes of...Who the fuck do you think you are! - Watch it!" I shouted as we dodged one of its scythes.

"W-Why are you...?"

"Listen, I think we should turn our blades on this thing for the time being." I suggested while keeping a close eye on the beasts blades.

"W-Why do you think I'd join forces with-?"

"Look do want to die for being stupid, or are you going to fight!?"

"Why would you help me? How do know I won't just stab you in the back?"

"I don't, but I doubt you want to die here by this thing?"

"...Okay...I'll help you, just this once." She hesitantly accepted my invitation.

"Thank you...now let's get this over with," I knew since we both used daggers we wouldn't be able to block the creature's much larger blades. "I'll draw it's attacks to me, strike at the sides!"

"Got it!" We set our battle plan into action. I got the beast to attempt to strike at me, I dodged its strikes. My partner did as I said and she attacked it between the legs. After delivering several slashes and stabs, the reaper flicked it's centipede like body creating a ripple effect, knocking her back. I slid under the beast and stabbed my dagger into its underside and ran along the length of the body dragging my dagger, until I got shaken out. I decided to trade out my dagger for an extra one handed sword I had, even though it was as strong as my dagger, I dodged an attack from the beast, and it got it's arm stuck in the ground. Then, I successfully cut it's arm off, and it shrieked in pain.

"When I cut off its other arm go for it's head!" I said, as I baited it some more.

"Okay!" I cut the other arm off and she sprung at it's head, plunger her dagger into one of it's eyes.

"Switch!" She shouted to me.

"Switching!" We shifted and I finished the job with a stab to the eye. The beast dispersed into pixels.

"...We did it." She said to no one in particular.

"That could've been worse. Anyways, listen up I'm not going to hurt you alright. I woke up in this forest and I don't know how I got here."

"...You're not one of them?" she eyed me curiously.

"Them? Them who?" I asked putting away my weapon.

"I guess not... You can see it right? My cursor?" I noticed her cursor just now, that makes two of us.

"Yeah...orange." I didn't get same vibe from her that I did from other orange or red players. Which is usually a very violent or bloodthirsty vibe.

"That doesn't mean anything to you? How can you be so...casual about it?"

"You must not have noticed mine either." I pointed to my cursor, something I acquired around week one of being stuck in the game. "I'd ask how you got yours but we just met and..."

"You don't need to ask. I'll tell you. I killed someone..."

"..." I dropped it there since that's one of the easiest answers you could give to questions like this.

"It's the truth. That's why you shouldn't get involved with me. So I guess this is goodbye...thanks for helping me out back there." she turned to leave.

"Wait a sec!" I thought I could get some questions answered.

"What? Didn't I tell you not to get involved with me?"

"Yes, but I have some other thing or two I want to ask, where the hell are we? This is definitely not Aincrad."

"I don't know where we are. I got thrown in here about a month ago. And it's been a struggle for survival ever since. I haven't had the time to explore or even figure out where I am."

"Month ago? " I pulled one out and checked it, they worked alright. "Guess not."

"Yeah. There's a lot I don't about know this floor, but at least we can use items and messages like normal."

"I tried teleporting earlier, no good." She seemed to take notice of something.

"Y-You're...th-that..."

"What?"

"That pattern that's floating around your hand." she pointed to it, I looked and saw some mark I didn't notice earlier.

"What the fuck?" That was all I could think to say.

"Just who are you anyway?" she asked again.

"The more important question is where are we and what is this place?"

"I don't really know...Listen, can I take a closer look at your hand?"

"Okay?" I let her examine the new mark on his hand.

"It's the same. Of course it is... I've seen this mark before, it was on some device."

"Some device huh, can you take me to it?"

"I guess I don't mind, but are you willing to trust an orange-no...red player you've just met?"

" Why not, what have I got to lose?...Anyway my name's Lukas, and you?"

"Philia."

" **Nice to meet you Philia**." I still have a habit of speaking Swedish even to people who don't understand it.

"Huh?" She looked at me confused.

"It's Swedish, for nice to meet you."

"Right, well I guess we should get going. I'll lead the way."

"Right behind you."

 _ **45 minutes later**_

"It's just down this hill here." Philia pointed out.

"Okay, let's keep moving." We kept going down, having to fight through some orcs and giant wasps in the process. We soon came to a cave.

"If we can get to the forest on the other side of this cave. We can reach that device with the same design." I took a look at the cave, and didn't look like anything would attack us in there. We entered the cave and as we went I twiddled around with my menu to see if I could find anything there.

"No floor number or anything, what the fuck is this place?" I said out loud, partially to break the silence between us.

"Apparently it's called the Hollow Area." Philia answered what we both already knew.

"I think that's already been established." I said putting away my menu.

"You don't remember how you came here at all?" She asked me.

"All I can remember is I was sent on a mission with a friend to scout this place that was recently cleared of other player killers. That's all I can remember before." I explained. My lack of info was starting to frustrate me.

"I was exploring, looking for some treasure and I was just randomly teleported here." she explained to me.

"Looking for treasure, are you a treasure hunter?" I asked.

"Well, that's what I call myself. It's not like SAO has any jobs or anything. But you see, I don't care much about fighting monsters or clearing quests... I'm more suited to finding treasures that have been hidden in various dungeons. I mean, there are a lot of important items that are crucial if you want to survive here. That's why I decided to become a treasure hunter." She explained.

"Nice. But what about battling? Surely you have to deal with mobs or crooks."

"It's fine. I've mastered the trap disarming and searching skills, you see." she showed me her stats menu.

"Wow."

"The lockpicking skill is my particular specialty, though. I've never come across a treasure chest I couldn't open. No matter how powerful the monster guarding a chest is, I'm confident I can use my stealth skill to sneak past it and lock pick my way to the treasure." she stated proudly, pretty much bragging at this point. I felt like saying something sarcastic, but decided against it.

"I never seen any treasure hunting skills in the beta, I'd like to see them at work."

"Hmm... I guess it depends on how long we are going to be together. Still, if I get the chance, I'll give you a glimpse of what I can do. But that's enough of that for now. I think we've got our priorities all wrong here."

"Right, anyway this mark, have you seen anyone with it other than me?" I decided to get back to our main issue.

"No, I haven't seen another player with one."

"Because I didn't have it when I first woke up here."

"There's still a lot I don't know myself."

"Are there many other players here?" I thought it would be something to ask, since the only players I encountered here so far decided to attack me, her included.

"Yeah, but there is something strange about them."

"Really?"

"It's hard to explain. It's probably better if you see for yourself."

"I don't think I want to... Exactly where are we heading to?"

"You can see that thing over there can't you?" Philia pointed to a large sphere that had a bright light shining from the botto,

"Well that's something you don't see in Aincrad. Have you been inside?"

"No I can't go inside. Maybe I could if you were with me, though…" she paused. "I mean it's showing the same symbol you've got on your hand. There's another teleporter up ahead. We just need to make it through here." The two continued along their path until they made it to a clearing.

"We getting close?" I asked.

"We are. There it is let's go." she picked up the pace and I followed. We approached a dark blue cubic device with a white pattern on it that matched the one on my hand.

"That's it!" Philia announced

"This thing?" I get a good look at it. "The same symbol."

"It is isn't it? I think this must be the way into the sphere. Are you going to give it a try?"

"I'll try," I touched the device and we were both surrounded by light and teleported. We reappeared into what looked like a large computer room.

"Bingo! Just as I thought." Philia said

"So this the inside of the sphere." I said looked around.

"It seems that way..."

"No enemies..."

"Wha?! Hey... This area looks like it's classified as a safe zone!"

"I think you're right...but what about the guardian?" I was referring to guardians that attack orange players who enter safe zones in Aincrad.

"...Looks like it isn't coming."

"This is definitely not aincrad." I looked at what looked like a large console, it said stuff that talked about implementations and progress of implementation tests. "Implementations?"

"Hey! Come over here for a sec!" Philia called

"What is it?!" I went over to her.

"This thing... I think it's a teleport gate, but it looks kind of different..." The device did look like a teleport gate although nothing like the ones in Aincrad.

"I don't know what else it would be. But at least we are able to get out of here, right?" I assuming this might work since my teleport crystal didn't work.

"Getting out of here... That sounds nice, I guess." She didn't seem too excited.

"Something wrong?"

"...I'm not coming with you. You go ahead...I guess this is goodbye. I'm glad we met. It's been fun."

"Well...I'm guessing it's possible to come here as long as the gates open. This area doesn't sit with me very well, and I want to know what is is gist of this place."

"Well, listen... If you ever decide to come back, send me a message. I'll come and meet you here."

"Can you get in without this?" I showed the mark.

"Hmm? This Administration Area? Well I tested it out and it seems that since I've been here once, I can come back whenever I like."

"Okay, I'll keep in touch."

"I'll be waiting. Not that I'm getting my hopes up..."

"Well, see you soon Philia." I teleported to floor one.

"See you soon ...um, maybe I could try ." Philia tried to teleport only to have her attempt rejected

" _System error. You are unable to teleport from the Hollow Area."_

"Why? What is it about me...?" _  
_

 **Town of Beginnings**

I arrived back at Aincrad. It was 10:00 PM at night, even though I was out of the Hollow Area, the bad feelings I had only increased. I normally spawned outside the Town of Beginnings due to my cursor, but I appeared in the middle of the town. This is not right.

"What the fuck is going on around here, what the hell's happening to me?"


	3. Monument of Life

I made my way to the first floor boss room, the place I crash every night, no one ever comes there, since most of the players are on higher floors. That and the players on the floor usually stay in the safe zone. However along the way there, I spotted leftover Titan's Hand goons attacking an unarmed and paralyzed player. I try to pull my dagger only to have it not come out of it's sheath. I decided to run in unarmed, at least to stall a bit.

"Hey!" They didn't hear me, one was about to pull his axe off his back to kill the player. I tried to punch the attacker only to go clean through him. I try again and again, only to witness the victim die in front of me.

"Heh, that was fun." One of the murderers scoffed.

"Hey! Get back here!" I tried to pull out my dagger again only to be unable to unsheath it, there was nothing I could do. I eventually got back to the empty boss room, I slept behind the throne the boss used to sit in. I remember when I first got that fucking cursor, the first player I ever killed. Back IRL I was a boxer for the middle school I went to, same with high school. I always fought with a land the first hit approach, let's just say that's what caused this. Your cursor only turns orange if you attack a green player. A green player tried to kill me, but I landed to first hit, the system read me as the perpetrator, and I've lived with consequences since that day.

 **Floor 55 - KOB headquarters.**

"You bitch!" Frukt shoved Asuna against the wall. "You did it! I know you did!" He had his hands around her neck.

"Did...what...?" she uttered out.

"Frukt stop!" Kirito managed to get him away from her. Asuna held her throat to regain her breath.

"She set him up, she sent him there to have him killed!" Frukt tried to grab her again but Kirito restrained him. He knew what Frukt was talking about.

"Come on Frukt. She would never do that, especially an ally." Kirito tried to calm him

"We both know she could care less what happened to him, how much she hated him. He was my best friend! And this piece of shit got him killed!" Frukt was dragged off by other KOB members.

"Me and him have had our disagreements, but I would never do that." Asuna had finally caught her breath.

"To think I turn around for a second just to see him dead the next. He always used to tell me how he didn't care when or how he died, just waiting for his time. But I never thought he would go down like that."

Next Day - Hollow Area (Lukas POV)

I returned to the Hollow Area, I assumed Philia was off exploring since she was nowhere in sight. But I had other things to worry about. I can't use anything in Aincrad, I can't even interact with other players, and I can't even message people. I decided to look around Sylvendy's some more, hoping to find something informative at least, I ran into another player, I hoped I could get some info.

"Hey, excuse me!" I called.

"Ahh, a PK'er, don't kill me!" Typical response.

"I won't, I just want to talk." I tossed my dagger aside for his assurance.

"W-What do you want?"

"Do you know anything about this place?" As soon as I asked that, any fear he had was replaced with amusement.

"You're playing this game and you don't know where you are?! We are in Aincrad obviously!" Either I'm in a more of a screwed up scenario then I thought, or this guy's just stupid, I hoped for the second.

"Are you stupid? This is not Aincrad."

"Clearly you are stupid because this is clearly Aincrad."

"...Then where's the floor labyrinth?" On every floor in Aincrad, you could see the floor labyrinth, anyone could tell what it looked like since it looks like a giant stone pillar that pierces the sky.

"Well nobody has found it yet. The players on the frontlines must be slacking."

"Whatever you say." I said sarcastically. I decided to cut it there. I picked up my dagger and carried on. That must have been what Philia was talking about. I wound up meeting a few other players, and they were no different. It looks like I'm in a beyond fucked up scenario. After looking around in one of the many stone structures, I found a chest with some interesting loot after searching a lot of mimics. A silver medallion with a blue jewel, but on the jewel had what I now call the "Hollow Mark" on it.

"I wonder what this is for...Who's there?!"" I shouted. I had my hand on my dagger. I slowly made my way to the door I came through. I spotted a girl who looked like she was watching me, she made a run for it when she she was detected. I followed her, usually when someone stalks you it's not for good reason, or at least in here anyway. I followed her outside the temple and ran into a large swarm of large wasps, I thought I could get through them with no problem, but I thought wrong. I wound up getting paralyzed and wound up unable to move on the ground. I closed my eyes and waited for the end.

"Lukas, are you alright?!...Lukas wake up!" I opened my eyes to find myself on the ground of the Administration Room. Philia was beside me, she gave me some space when I sat up.

"I'm alive..." I was surprised I survived.

"I came back from exploring, and I found you lying there, I saw your HP was dangerously low so I used a healing crystal on you." Philia said.

"Thanks, I-" I was cut off when I was notified by my message inbox. The name wasn't present, but I read the message. **I'm waiting in the Town of Beginnings**. "I guess I'm needed back in Aincrad. When I get back there are some things I want to discuss with you."

"Okay, take care."

 **Floor 1**

I teleported back to Floor 1. I turn around and see the girl waiting for me. She immediately ran to the Black Iron Palace. I followed her in the building. I saw her turn a corner, I turned the same corner and she was nowhere to be seen. Although what stood before me was the Monument of Life, a large tablet with the names of every player in Aincrad, those crossed off had succumbed to the death game.

"The Monument of Life? But why-?" The words lodged themselves in my throat as it felt everything around me had just came to a halt. My legs lost their strength and I fell to my knees. "No! This can't be happening! W-What's happening to me!?" Upon finding my name, it hit me. I was dead.

* * *

 ** _Well here's the next chapter. Remember this is the first I'm fully dedicating myself to. So some critique helps._**


	4. Revelations

**Here's Chapter 4, enjoy.**

* * *

It finally came to me, I remember what happened to me. Asuna had me and Kirito scout the hideout of Laughing Coffin in case any of the guild members were to come back. Mostly in hopes of catching PoH, the guild's leader.

 _ **Flashback - August 2024 (Third Person)**_

"I heard you got in trouble with the assault team again." Kirito said to start a conversation as they walked through the cave.

"The players they wanted to imprison are too far gone, assume they got away, more players would be at risk. They make it out of the game alive, they become a threat IRL." Lukas replied as he kicked a fallen player's weapon aside.

"The assault team's goal is to clear the game so **nobody** else dies to this system." Lukas had nothing to respond to Kirito's words with, he stopped dead in his tracks.

"I guess this game brought out the absolute worst in me." Lukas said looking down at his hands. Kirito turned around.

"It's brought out the worst in everyone. But one day everything will be back to normal, once we put an end to Kayaba's world." Kirito went to keep moving only to hear the sounds of a blade piercing flesh. He turned around yet again and watched as Lukas collapsed face first to the ground. The last thing Kirito saw was a large dagger protruding through Lukas's back. His body burst into pixels, the dagger clanged as it hit the ground.

"Lukas!" Kirito spotted a silhouette of someone behind them as it fled. "Get back here!" He pursued after the killer.

 _ **Present**_ _-_ _ **Lukas POV**_

"You must have more and more questions now don't you Lukas?" I turn to see the girl. She wore a yellow tunic with a knee length skirt and a silver chest plate. Her hair wa dirty blonde and neck length.

"What the hell is happening to me? I need to know!" I stood up again. She walked closer to me.

"You're a Christian aren't you. What happens to a soul who had committed sinned when they die?"

"...Those who have committed sin are denied access to paradise... They are condemned to hell as punishment for their sins... What does that have to do with me?!"

"The Hollow Area, think of it as the hell of SAO. Fallen players who have committed murder respawn in there. They cannot die IRL or leave the Hollow Area, they don't have to fear death if they lose their health points. However once the game is cleared, the Nerve Gear will do what it was programmed to do when anybody else were to die in game." Her explanation would usually have me calling bullshit, but due to what's happened to me as of late, I was ready to believe anything.

"How do you know all this?" Something told me she wasn't a regular player, heck not a regular A.I either.

"Mental Health Counseling Program, 004. Codename Mei."

"Mental Health Counseling Program?"

"My purpose in the game was exactly what my name sounds like. Like many of my counterparts, we were made to monitor the emotions of players and if possible remedy their distress. For an unknown reason we were restricted from interacting with any players." She walked up beside me and stared at the Monument of Life. She then opened a menu that I assume only she had access to. "The system found another use for me as an overseer for all the players in the Hollow Area." The menu had who I guessed were every one of the fallen players condemned to the Hollow Area, a few of the names I recognized, being ones I killed myself.

"Wait, so they can't leave the Hollow Area, but how come I can?"

"The Hollow Area was meant to be exclusive to certain skill level players. The Hollow Area's initial purpose was for those high skill players to test implementations that would eventually be added to the game, much like how other games would get content updates. The underworld like function was a last minute addition, and there were several oversights they didn't take into account and the area is prone to glitches and bugs. You unknowingly found an oversight."

"You mean how I'm able to get back and forth from Aincrad?"

"Correct, high skilled players are the only ones able to freely come and leave from the Hollow Area. They are indicated by a mark like the one you have. The system must have glitched due to the way the mark is transferred. If a high skilled player is slain by another player, the survivor receives the mark. The first player you killed upon waking up in the Hollow Area, Mentha, was a high skill player, when you killed him, the system gave you most of his privileges."

"So how come I can't interact with anything or anyone in Aincrad."

"From what I can collect, your avatar and many data related to it is locked in the Hollow Area. Meaning your equipment in Aincrad is treated as if it was one with you. As for the lack of interaction it is likely due to your avatar data being blocked off from there. How you can enter towns and safe zones is because of your cursor data being bound to the Hollow Area."

"...Wait a minute." I looked at the names on the monument. "Philia is a living player, why is she there?"

"The system picks from the list of players of Aincrad and teleports them into the Hollow Area where they are put through a trial to determine if they are worthy of the high skill privileges. However some players you see are AI copies of randomly selected players. And those AI are prevented from leaving the hollow area as well."

"So is the Philia I met real or an AI?" I asked, Mei closed her eyes and looked like she was focusing. I assumed she was scanning the system.

"Hmm...strange, she's being treated as a condemned player, but I can't determine if she is real or AI, you both seem to be in unique situations."

"...So what happens to her when the games cleared?"

"If she's AI, she will terminated with the system. If she's alive then she will share the same fate as the other condemned players." I didn't know to make of this. I know what I've done and I can accept my fate, but Philia... did she truly commit an act so deplorable? Then again, my orange cursor came to me because of self defense against a green player.

"Isn't there anything that can be done?"

"My scan also tells me that what ever happened created an error that can only be repaired by conole beneath the Administration Area. Fix the error and your friend should be freed."

"How do I access it?" Mei pulled out a Hollow Area map.

"Where you currently have access to is Sylvendys Forest Area, each area has an area boss. Defeat each boss to access every the next area. There are four other areas, Bastia, Graceleaf. Driogeer, and Alevaste. Defeat each one and you will gain access to the Administration areas lower levels.

"Alright...I got work to do." I walked toward the exit to head back to the hollow area.

"Lukas wait!"

"What is it?"

"You need to know, even if you fix the error it's possible you may still die when the game is cleared. Another thing is most condemned players respawn when they die, but since Philia is still a living player she will die for good if her HP depletes. And since you are being read as a high skill player in the Hollow Area, instead of respawning you will die."

"...Then so be it." I exited the Black Iron Palace and made my way to to the Hollow Area.

* * *

 **This concludes chapter 4, I tried to keep the Hollow Areas purpose as close to its original purpose in Hollow Fragment as I can while tweaking it around enough to fit my fic. Please review.**


	5. Laughing Coffin

**I initially wasn't going to, but I'm going to be using google translate for whenever Lukas speaks his native tongue. I apologize in advance to any Swedish readers whose language I'm probably butchering.**

* * *

I returned to the Hollow Area. I found Philia, there were some things we needed to talk about.

"Finished your business in Aincrad?" she asked me sitting on the the console away from the keyboard.

"Yeah. Have you not gone back at all since we first met?"

"No I haven't, I've been too busy exploring this place." I knew that last part was a lie, which meant she knew she was trapped here.

"..."

"What?" she asked, feeling uneasy with my silence.

"I want you to be completely honest with me. You've tried to go back but you're unable to teleport aren't you?"

"...It's true, I've tried teleporting, but I can't. Watch." she walked over to the teleporter. "Teleport Town of Beginnings!"

" _ **System error. You are unable to teleport from the Hollow Area."**_

"I see. Listen, back in Aincrad I was able to find some info on this place." I looked at the console in front of me.

"What did you find?"

"This AI came to me, she said she was an overseer of this place. The Hollow Area is supposedly where implementations are tested before being added to the game. She said this place is very glitch heavy, and you being trapped here is an error in the system. Based on what I found out we need to access a terminal beneath the Administration Room to fix it. As for your cursor, I think we could find some Karma Restoration Quests."

"So how do we access the terminal then?"

"Apparently there are five different bosses in the Hollow Area, defeat all five and we can gain access to the lower levels. Oh, I just remembered I found this earlier in a treasure chest, do you have any idea what it's for?" I scrolled through my menu and showed her the pendant I found earlier.

"Well now I know who beat me to that spot." She looked irritated that I beat her to the loot. "I think I might have an idea what it could be for. There's this bridge that's blocked off by a gate with that mark, maybe it will open it."

"Can you take me to it?"

"Yeah let's go." Philia used the console to warp us to Sylvendys.

I figured out that while I have an option to start implementation tests, but I figured I'd leave those alone. Philia seems to be limited to teleport locations. The place we were going to was the farthest point West of the forest, thankfully from where we're going didn't have too many overly strong enemies. The wasps that nearly killed me were to Southern direction, which leads to Alevaste, so the closer we get to there, the tougher it will be. Like going deeper and deeper in hell. Since Kirito and Frukt were still on my friends list, I use their location to judge how long I have. Because however long it takes them to clear the game is all the time I have to fix the error and save Philia if not both of us.

The place on the map is labeled **Bridge to Bastia Gate** , we took the route which looked like shortest route, if we didn't take into account all the wrong turns.. We started at **Sylvendys Shrine - Front Square**. From there we went southwest to the **The Tomb Before Darkness** , then traveled through **Forest Maze** and a maze it was alright. We had to backtrack once or twice. We soon enough made it to our destination. Low and behold, there was the gate. Although it looked more like a barrier with the Hollow Mark on it. From what I could see through the barrier, the other side of the bridge lead to several floating islands.

"I see what you mean Philia. Well let's see." I pressed the pendant against the gate. "Förbaskat. Nothing."

"Maybe we have to beat the boss in Sylvendys." Philia suggested.

"I think you're right, question is where's the boss?"

"Hey...Lukas?"

"Yeah?"

"I was wondering if you wanted to do something with me before we take on the boss."

"Depends on that something."

"A while back, I found a place that looked like it would be full of treasure, but there's a monster that's way too powerful for me to take out myself. So I was thinking...maybe we can go together." I could tell from the way she said it and the way she's acting she felt nervous about asking me for help.

"Yeah, I'll go with you."

"Really?! Oh that's such a relief..."

"So where's this place?"

"It's the area beyond the graveyard map. It's like a church."

"Church huh? Alright, visa vägen."

"Thanks Lukas." I followed her to our destination.

"So what ever happened to that stealth skill you so proudly bragged about?" I asked sarcastically.

"Sh-Shut up!" She was clearly irritated at my jab. The spot on the map I guessed we were going to was called **Church of the Encounter**. When arrived, it didn't seem much like a church to me. Then again, the church I went to back in Stockholm wasn't as big as this building, it was more like an abandoned palace if anything.

"We're here!" Philia announced

"This is it?" I saw a dead end, but upon taking a closer look. It did seem strange a stray piece of carpet came from the wall.

"The door is hidden. If we can find the release mechanism, we should be able to continue...Here it is." She activated the switch and it revealed a door.

"Wow, I guess that's a treasure hunter for you." I said "I take it that the big monster is right beyond here?"

"Yeah, I'm counting on you Lukas." she opened the door and I saw what she meant. A large stone golem with cyclops eye. I seen similar versions in the beta, although I doubt there would be much similarities since this was before the release.

"We may beat it in speed, but a good hit may do a number on us if not finish us. Keep your eyes peeled." I said drawing my dagger.

"Okay." Philia drew her own weapon. We engaged the swung it's arm at me and I rolled aside. I slashed at it's legs, the closest thing in reach. Following my lead, Philia dodged another swing and went for it's other leg. We managed to land several strikes, but we weren't making much leeway. What did expect with two daggers against a rock? I saw it about use a spinning attack, due to the way it looked like it was winding up.

"Back off!" I commanded, we dashed backwards and dodged it's spinning arms.

"We aren't doing enough damage!" Philia said, I had one idea that could speed things up.

"I think I know what we can do, wait for the hammer strikes, then we go for it's eye!" I explained.

"Okay!" I went and baited out the hammer strike, I avoided it's slow strike and ran up it's arm. I plunged my dagger into it's eye, I was right, I repeatedly drove my dagger into it's eye before getting shaken off. The golem went to crush me while I was grounded, but I rolled aside. Philia took the initiative and repeated what I did, I used one my sword sword skills on the golems lower body that was in reach. Used her own sword skill on the eye. One of us landed the final blow as it burst into pixels.

"Remind me to put some work towards clubs later. They'll come in handy if we have to fight more golems." I said putting my dagger away.

"Well, thankfully most of the golems in this area we can take out just fine. You sure are strong Lukas, I can see why you are a frontline fighter."

"You would fit in the assault team really well too Philia."

"S-Stop flattering me, you won't get anywhere with it!"

"I'm just stating the facts. Nothing to be embarrassed about." I replied.

"Hee hee... well if you insist. It's been awhile since I've been complimented is all." She must be more of a solo player than me, not as much Kirito though."Hey look! A treasure chest!"

"Hey, be careful!" I shouted, she either didn't hear me or ignored me.

"It's fine! Come on Lukas!" She called me, she acted like my little sister on Christmas day from one of our earlier days in Sweden, I thought it was cute. Although for a split second, I heard the sound of gunshot and someone screaming. I snapped back just as fast as it came, I glanced around.

"What the fuck?" I said to myself.

"Lukas, what are you doing! I said come on!" She's certainly enthusiastic.

"Okay okay okay, I'm hurrying." I made my way over to the treasure chest. She examined the lid closely.

"Looks like the lid is trapped."

"Can you disarm it?" I nudged the side with my foot.

"Heh. You sound doubtful. Do you have such little faith in my abilities? " Philia took that as a challenge apparently.

"I didn't say that."

"I can work out trap levels and types at a glance. I've been working on my skills, you see, so I can do just that." she certainly sounded confident.

"I'll let your work speak for itself then." I stood aside as she picked the lock.

"I got this Lukas... There! It's open!" she really enthusiastic

"Wow, that was fast.

"Hee hee hee... okay little treasure, come on out." She said it as if she was trying get a pet cat out from under a bed.

"Little Treasure?"

"What kind of treasure are you I wonder...A weapon? An accessory maybe..." Philia said as she rummaged through it "...There you are!" she excitedly pulled out the loot.

"Wow...that looks pretty rare."

"Yeah! Hee hee! Finding treasure like this is so much fun!"

"Heh... you're so cute." Well I just dug myself a hole.

"Hmm? What did you say?" Philia asked surprised, not sure she heard me right.

"I said I think you're really cute, like a kid sister." I replied

"Huh? You think I'm... cute?" Philia began to blush. Lukas then began to have flashbacks.

"Well that's not what I-"

"It isn't? So I'm not cute?!" she started to look disappointed.

"No! No! You are but umm, erm..." I was slapping myself mentally right now.

"Hee hee... you know Lukas, you're pretty cute when you get flustered like that."

"Very funny..."

"Come on. I'm just kidding! Here you can have this."

"Huh, thanks but you're the one who found it."

"Yeah, but I don't really need it, go ahead and take it." it was called a Light Ring.

"Okay if you say so, thank you." I added it to my inventory.

"Now you make sure to take good care of that. I don't give that many people presents."

"It's in good hands, alright let's head back." She went ahead of me. I had another flash, but not just sounds, I saw the barrel of a gun at my forehead before the shooter quickly changed targets and fired, I heard the screams again. I snapped myself back to reality and smacked the sides of head.

"Lukas? What's wrong?" Philia turned around noticing I hadn't moved.

"Nothing, I'm right behind you." I lied, those flashbacks were not new occurrences. I started to get these a week after the sixth month of eighth grade after I first moved to Japan with my step father. Lets just say what happened that day caused me to avoid getting close with any girls again, it also made me want to skip on days where lockdown drills were scheduled.

I had caught up to Philia. I knew I hadn't been completely honest with her, I don't think I can tell her about me being condemned, I worry she may panic if I told her, we need to stay level headed right now.

"Wait." I put my arm in front of her.

"What is it?"

"Were not alone, stay behind me." I had my hand on my dagger and I slowly walked forward, searching the area carefully."Get down!" I threw ourselves to the ground to avoid an axe thrown at us. We got up, and we were soon surrounded by 5 cloaked orange players, Laughing Coffin.

"Well, looks like we get two for one!" one of them cackled maniacally.

"Philia, when I take out the guy to the left of us, run for the door." I whispered.

"But-"

"Do it." I said sternly. I threw my dagger at the player closest to the door it lodged itself into their forehead and killed them. "GO, NOW!" I had to shove her a bit since she was hesitant. As soon as she went through the door I retrieved my dagger. I didn't send her because I didn't think she could handle it, but for other reasons.

"You send your only help away to keep your secret hidden, heh heh heh. No matter, it will die with you." One of the killers taunted me. These were most likely condemned players, meaning even if I kill them here then the threat of them remain.

"Try me." I dashed forward and slit the the throat of the one who just spoke, the others attacked me. I caught anothers sword arm and threw them over my shoulder and stabbed him in the chest while he was grounded. An axe wielder came from behind, I dodged his axe and my daggers bonus ability paralyzed him, I used his immobile body to shield myself from the last one, or who I thought was the last one. I was barely managed to dodge an attack from a large two handed sword. This guy I recognized, he was probably the biggest guy in Laughing Coffin, he had the look of a heavyweight wrestler. I knew this was a copy because the original survived the crusade against the guild.

"Time to die backstabber!" I know a player's stature means little in this game, but I had a range disadvantage and one good hit from this guy could seriously damage me. Price I pay for using a offensive AGI build. My stats compliment an offensive playstyle yet I play very defensively. I dashed in decided to test the waters, his weapon had high weight and might, but he wielded it as if it weighed as much a one handed sword. I thought I saw an opening and waited for it. He kicked up dust at my face long enough to leave me open I tried to block with my dagger only to have it knocked out of my hand.

"Lukas!" I looked and seen Philia had came back, he didn't put much thought into her attack as she got shoulder slammed into the wall.

"Din jävla idiot." I muttered under my breath. The big guy decided to switch targets,

"You asked for it bitch!" he reared his sword up. Philia winced a she thought her end was near. I plunged my dagger through the back of his head. I helped up Philia.

"What the fuck did I say?!"

"But I-" she tried defend herself.

"I told you to-!" I was cut off by the same flashback I had earlier.

"Lukas? What's wrong?" I shook the image out of my head, I was able to calm myself.

"I'm okay. Look I'm sorry for snapping, I just wanted to know you would be safe okay?"

"Okay, I understand."

"Alright, let's get out of here." I equipped the Light Ring as we made our way to the Administration Area. The game time said it was night in Aincrad. I figured I would call it a day and sleep back there.

"See you soon Lukas." Philia said as I teleported away.

 **Floor 1 Boss Room**

I couldn't sleep immediately, why am I getting flashbacks of that day now. Now that I think of it, Philia is the first girl I've been friendly with since that day. I smacked the sides of my head.

"No, I can't deal with that again."

* * *

 **Well there you go, I tried to make this a longer chapter, I'm mostly trying to figure out how much game dialogue I should leave unchanged and changing it for my fic. Please review, it helps.**


	6. Growing Dangers

**A little side note any sword skills Lukas uses involving his dagger will be from Hollow Fragment or Lost Song**

* * *

Last night could have been better, I kept having nightmares from that day in middle school, then I woke up earlier than I had hoped for since I was called to the Black Iron Palace by Mei.

"Sorry for bringing you here on short notice." Mei apologized to me.

"It doesn't bother me. So what did you need?"

"I wanted to let you know that I upgraded your Hollow Map, Philia's too. The place where the boss is located is shaded purple, however it will only be shaded if the boss is there." she explained.

"Okay, thanks." I turned to leave.

"Lukas."

"What?"

"Since you can't interact with NPC's in Aincrad, if need an item or something let me know."

"Alright, thank you." I made my way to the teleport gate and returned to the Hollow Area. A lot of the enemies in the Hollow Area were stronger than they were on the seventy-third floor, and the floor boss wasn't a walk in the park either. Hopefully a two person party won't be detrimental.

"Lukas, can I ask you something?" Philia got my attention.

"What's up?" I replied

"Why are you helping me? We met less than a few days ago, and we don't know a whole lot about each other. So why help someone you hardly know?" I knew I would have to answer this type of question eventually.

"Because I wouldn't feel right if I did nothing..." I answered, "Why do I seem like an asshole to you?" I asked as a joke.

"N-No... okay maybe a little but-"

"Don't worry about it. Anyway shall we take out the boss?"

"Umm, yeah, let's go." I probably caught her off guard with my response, but I couldn't bring myself to tell her about the condemned player situation, I didn't want her to panic or lose hope. As for why I'm helping her, it's true I don't want to stand by and leave her to a wrongful fate. I guess another reason is because I want some sense of redemption, even though I know it won't change anything, Lucifer probably made me a spot in hell on day one of SAO.

We set out to fight the boss, our path was pretty straightforward. We started at **Selvendys Shrine - Front Square** and then headed north to the **Shrine of the Folkblood Ritual.** I just hoped we could beat all 5 bosses before we ran out of time.

 **Shrine of Offerings**

"Philia, switch!"

"I'm on it!" Philia delivered the final hit on the last monster in the room. We had already killed a lot of skeletons and reapers.

"Nice work Philia. I guess this is way to the boss." I looked at the stone door in front of us with a bright red jewel at the top, proceeding we walked up a small set of stairs and I could see what was without a doubt the area boss. The best way I could describe it was a giant canine-like shadow demon with shackles and wrapped in chains in certain areas. Something told me the chains were not just for looks. I saw 4 health bars, it's name was the " _Shadow Phantasm"_

"Maybe I should have taken those exorcism classes after all." I made a little joke. I may be a Christian, but I only believe in metaphorical demons. Everyone has them, no exorcist can remove them. They are the influence that brings out the worst in people, and my demons have gotten the better of me too many times.

"You ready Lukas?" Philia drew her dagger.

"Ready n' waiting." I pulled out my own dagger. We entered it's field of vision and it let out a loud roar. The boss zig zagged towards us then went to pounce the two of us. I dodged right and Philia dodged left. The boss decided to set its sights on Philia, and lunged toward her, she dodged the attack and landed an attack in it's left arm. The boss swung its arm and slammed her, causing her to collide with me. Regaining our footing, we watched the beast delve into the ground, we then felt the ground shake beneath us.

"Move!" I shouted, we managed to avoid it's jaws. I used the dagger skill Armor Pierce and plunged it into the boss's back, the blade dragging along it's back as the boss resurfaced. The boss landed on the ground and reared back and slammed the ground creating a shockwave. Philia and I lept over the wave. The boss prepared for another, and Philia saw this as an opportunity to attack the head. Philia used the dagger skill Fad Edge, and inflicted four strong slashes on the head.

"Switch!" Philia shouted

"Switching in!" We shifted our positions and I used a six hit dagger skill, Mirage Fang, delivering six horizontal slashes. Philia continued to pick away at it's health, we soon managed to lower it's health to 50%. The boss let out an ear piercing roar and it's chains shattered, I knew they weren't just for looks. It leapt at us again, this time it targeted me, it turned it's head sideways and opened it's mouth incredibly wide and tried to clamp it's teeth into me. I underestimated the speed and I was grazed by two of the teeth, I had received bleeding status from the attack. The boss followed up with a sweep attack, sending me back a good fifteen yards and flooring me. It seems loosing the shackles lowered its defense in exchange for strength. We managed to lower it's HP more by taking turns between baiting and attacking. When we breached it's last health bar, we went on the offensive. I used the eight hit skill Accel Raid on the boss's face.

"Switch!" I ordered

"I'm on it!" Philia shifted positions with me and used her own Accel Raid, which was enough to finish the boss.

"We did it... Great fighting Philia." I put away my dagger.

"Thanks, you were amazing too Lukas."

"What the?" I pulled out the pendant with the mark. "The pendants glowing."

"Maybe it will open the gate."

"Yeah, let's get going."

 **Bridge to Bastia Gate**

"Well, here goes nothing." I held the pendant to the gate, it flickered then vanished. The pendant also lost it's glow.

"It worked!" Philia said excitedly

"One down, four to go. Let's go explore the new area." I said.

"Right." We kept moving forward. Over the once blocked bridge.

We found ourselves in the new Area, **Bastia Gate - The Floating Ruins Area**. Taking a look around I noticed the ground was made of multiple smaller floating islands connecting. Hopefully they won't drift apart. And there was a large tower northeast of us.

"Wow, that is a tall tower... The top stretches way up into the sky." Philia gazed toward the top.

"I'll bet there is something vital in there. It wouldn't stick out so much otherwise." I said taking a look at the large drops to inevitable doom. It would be smart for us to watch our steps.

" I smell treasure!"

"Someone's getting excited, let's check out the tower." We went to the tower entrance only to find another one of what I called a Hollow Gate, we heard a faint voice.

" _Those who have not received blessing of the dragon king must depart from this place."_

"Blessing huh?" I said nudging the gate with my foot.

"It could be some type of item, maybe." Philia suggested

"Sounds plausible, let's do some scouting." It was then we heard an ear piercing roar. "What the hell?!" We turned to see a dragon with a blade like tail flying toward the tower.

"A d-dragon!" We watched as it flew to the tower.

"I figured there wouldn't be a conspicuous tower here for nothing."

"Does it have a nest up there or something? That was really surprising though."

"Man kan säga det igen, låt oss gå." I motioned for her to follow.

"You know I don't understand you when you use that language." Philia said as she followed. By the Hollow Gate was another one of those teleport devices like the one that first took me to the Administration Area, I activated it so we could teleport back here and shorten trips. We went west this time from where we started here, and something caught my eye.

"Hold it." I held my hand out to halt Philia.

"What's the...matter." She had seen what I stopped for. Two Laughing Coffin grunts slowly killing a paralyzed player. Without saying anything I ran after them.

"Hey, assholes!" I shouted drawing my dagger, I was too slow, as their victim burst into pixels. I chased after them but I lost them. "Förbaskat!" I threw my dagger to the ground in frustration. and it bounced of a rock.

"EEK!" Philia flinched as my dagger stuck into the ground inches from her foot.

"Sorry... Helvete. Where there's any of them there's bound to be more. Let's call it a day."

"Okay." she handed me my dagger and we went back to the Administration Area.

"Have you had to deal with many of those guys before?" I asked.

"I've had a few close calls. Before I knew they were around I would just sleep in places that were monster free for the most part, but they weren't safe places from other players. There had been times when I'd go for days without sleep...That was the situation I was in when I first met you." she explained.

"Well that explains why you reacted the way you did." I leaned against the console.

"I still feel bad about that, you've been so good to me."

"You don't need to worry about that,it's old news now."

"I haven't had to deal with any of those guys in Aincrad, who are they?"

"Players who let the death game get to their head is one way to describe them. They are guild named Laughing Coffin, they're all murderers. They embrace the death system in this game to the fullest, they kill players the most slow and painful ways you can think of, and they savor relish every moment of it. I'm sure you can handle just one of them, but always remember where there's one there's likely more nearby."

"Have you had many encounters with them?" She asked me.

"Yeah... I've killed at least seven of them, that and the assault team took part in a crusade to incarcerate them, but it didn't go according to plan and a number of players died on both sides." A bit of silence passed between us, it certainly felt awkward. I looked at the clock on my menu 9:35 PM.

"Well, I guess I should head back and get some sleep."

"Right... You know I'm just gonna say it... I feel kind of lonely when you leave,

"Do you want me to stay here with you? I don't really need to go back."

"No... It's fine Lukas, I'll be alright."

"Okay... Just... Just promise me you'll take care of yourself."

"...I promise Lukas." she said, I hesitantly teleported to the first floor.

 **Hollow Area, Third Person**

"...He's gone." Philia said to no one. She was immediately alerted when she heard footsteps behind her.

"Alone at last, huh?"

"Who are you!?" Philia drew her dagger ready to defend herself, in truth she was terrified.

"Woah! Don't go waving that thing around. You could take my eye out!" He was another one of the Laughing Coffin guild members, except Philia could tell he wasn't like the others her and Lukas had faced, and not in a good way, he looked more powerful than the others. That and his hood and robes were a more greenish color, and his right cheek had a blue streak tattoo.

"You're one those guys from Laughing Coffin, Lukas warned me about you!"

"Oh, so you've heard of us? I guess we're famous in this world too."

"Are you here to kill me? I won't make it easy for you."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, calm down. I'm not interested in killing you, not really. That's not why I'm here."

"Then why are you here?"

"Why do you look so frightened, you're an orange player too, just like us. Why can't we just be friends."

"Ha... Nice try."

"I know, you see, I know what you did."

"Wh-What do you mean?"

"But you can't bring yourself to tell that Swed, can you?"

"Swed? You mean Lukas? If anything happens to him-!"

"Relax will you. I'm not going to do anything to him... For now."

"..." Philia was going through a mix of fear and confusion.

"I think we're done for today, I feel we're on the same wavelength. Besides I understand you better than that snake who thinks he can escape his actions."

"You're done here, get lost!"

"Okay, okay, I'm going... But let me say one last thing, Lukas and I are more alike than he wants to admit. Stick with him and you die."

"Wh-What's that supposed to mean!?"

"Oh she's all frightened again. I'd better get going... See you soon!" He left the scene.

"Stick with Lukas and... I'll die!?" Philia's legs felt week and fell to her knees. "What does it mean?!"

* * *

 **Well there's chapter 6, criticism appreciated, remember to review and tell me what you think.**


	7. PoH

I woke up around 3:00 AM, I was mostly just strolling around the Town of Beginnings. Since I first started high school, when I needed to clear my head I would take a walk and see how far I would get before dawn. I managed to get a full loop around the town. The Aincrad Liberation Force were occupying the Town, and they were not making it easy for lower level players and people that were not part of the fighting on the frontlines, mostly by monopolizing the town. It was irritating to watch and nothing, the only thing I can do anything about right now is in the Hollow Area.

 **Bastia Gate**

Me and Philia returned to the new area, we had a lot more ground to cover. We were looking at my Hollow Map trying to figure out a potential spot to start looking.

"Hmm, we need blessing of the dragon king...doesn't gave us much to work with." I said.

"... If you ask me, the Dragon's Nest sounds like the most reasonable place to start." Philia pointed a spot on the map southwest of us.

"Makes sense to me. Hope this will be easier to navigate than the Forest Maze." I said.

"Me too." we started to head southwest. Most of the enemies here were fliers and bugs. It did unnerve me how in some spaces we had very little legroom. When we made our way to the **Dragon's Nest** I spotted another Hollow Gate, I was guessing that's where we go once we beat that big dragon we spotted yesterday, if that dragon wasn't the boss I didn't know what would be the boss. We entered the Dragon's Nest, a whole lot of wyverns. Thankfully Philia and I were strong enough to take out two of them alone at most. The best way to describe the Dragon's Nest is a round room with a smaller room in the center. The first door was cracked and wouldn't open. Me and Philia went opposite directions to find the right door, opening the treasure chests we would find.

"Another cracked one. Philia how about you?!" I asked.

"Same here!" She replied. We came together on the fourth door, it opened and we found some treasure chests. Philia opened the chest up while I opened another door inside which lead to an empty room, more like a closet.

"Hey Lukas, look at this." Philia got my attention, she stood in front of a door with a golden keyhole.

"Does it open?" I asked

"I already tried, no good." she said, I noticed some writing on the door. It read " _The path will only open unto those with the Treasure of The Dragon."_

"Dragon Treasure?"

"I guess we'll need an item, question is, where do we start looking for it?" I opened my Hollow Map and searched the nearby locations.

"Here...at Sunken Vault." I pointed to the location.

"Are you sure?"

"Vaults are used to secure valuables, so it seems like a logical location."

"Good point, lead the way Lukas." We had to backtrack to the **Guardian Podium** then head to the **Tunnel of the Leading Lover.** Which looked like a giant ant tunnel, it reminded me when my little brother had an ant farm for a school project.

 **Sunken Vault**

We found a large room that had a silver chest that stood out like a sore thumb. Me and Philia both knew this room would put player's greed to the test, because around the chest there were dozens of brown chests.

"This many chests in one area can only mean one thing." Philia said.

"Mimics." we said simultaneously. Wanting to see what their stats were, I grabbed a nearby pebble and chucked it at a random chest, and it was a mimic, I saw that it's color cursor was dark crimson, meaning extreme danger.

"Oh shit." I said, I decided to take a gamble. "...Fuck it." I slowly began to make my way to the silver chest.

"Lukas what are you-?"

"I'll be fine." I said, partially to give myself some reassurance. I managed to open the chest, however I didn't get much time to see what I got. Because it was at that moment nearly all the chests turned into Mimic's.

"Oh fuck." I immediately ran for it. "GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE!" I yelled, thankfully Philia and I got out alright.

"So what did you get?" Philia asked when we caught our breath. I opened my item menu.

"Dragon Orb, this might be what we need. I guess it's time to backtrack again."

 **A Short Trip Later**

We put the Orb into the golden keyhole and the door opened, we saw a set of stairs going down. After descending we followed the path and we found ourselves in a new area. The Hollow Map said we were in the **Wyrmthrone**. There was only one other door in there. We opened the door, it was a large ice white dragon, it looked like it was flightless.

"I guess this dragon is what we're after. It looks strong." I said drawing my dagger.

"I'll be right beside you." Philia drew her own weapon.

"I'm glad I can depend on you. Let's do it."

 **Elsewhere in Bastia - No POV**

"Where are they now?"

"They're in the Wyrmthrone boss, shall we take them out?"

"No, where's the fun in that? Lukas will die soon enough, but we can play with our food a little longer."

"Shall we begin preperations?"

"Let's hold off a little while longer."

 **Wyrmthrone - Lukas POV**

The dragon had similar attack pattern to a mid floor boss I fought in the beta. Me and Philia were able to defeat it. We received an item for defeating it, Proof of Dragon Sovereignty.

"Proof of Dragon Sovereignty?" I said wondering what it was for.

"Wait, weren't we supposed to have the Blessings of the Dragon King to get through that gate blocking the tower?"

"Oh yeah, it did. We should try to open it, let's go Philia."

 **Guardian's Podium**

I spotted two Laughing Coffin grunts ahead of spotted us and ran for it.

"Them again, let's follow them." I dashed after them.

"O-Okay." Philia ran to catch up with me, we eventually caught up to them, we were hidden behind some rocks.

"Looks like you ran into some trouble." I recognized that voice. I peered over and saw the owner of the voice.

"Son of a bitch." I muttered under my breath, I guess it was loud enough for Philia to hear me.

"Who is that?" Philia asked.

"PoH, leader of Laughing Coffin, he's nothing but bad news." I replied.

"Hmm?" PoH apparently though he was being watched and turned our way.

"Get down." I whispered as we ducked. It seemed like he didn't see us."Thank God." I said, PoH and his followers left the area.

"Good thing they didn't see us." Philia said.

"No kidding, wait to take out the boss, I'd rather not have them in the same area while we're distracted fighting."

"Yeah." We returned to the Administration Area. Knowing PoH was here I was even more reluctant to leave Philia alone.

"Hey... Lukas."

"Huh?"

"Can you... stay with me this time? I-I mean, I don't know if that PoH guy can get in here or not but I would feel safer if you..." Philia was blushing, but it also felt like she had another reason to for me to stay.

"Don't worry, I'll stay with you."

 **9:45 PM**

I sent Mei a message asking her to check for PoH's name on the Monument of Life. PoH wasn't apprehended during the crusade and I don't know if he's still alive or not.

"Have any Jacks?"

"Go fish." I said. "Got any aces?"

"Here." she handed me an ace of spades

"No cards." I declared victory.

"Dang it!" She her hand to floor in frustration.

"Do you want another round?" I said picking up the cards.

"No, not really." She answered, I put the cards away. We sat with some awkward silence for a while, I hadn't got any reply from Mei yet, so I still don't know if the PoH we had seen was the real him or not.

"...So what made you want to play SAO?" Philia asked, thank god one of us had broken the silence.

"I quit caring about how I did in school and I was going through a living hell, I thought this was what I needed to get a temporary relief, and Kayaba sure did expand the temporary part. Not to mention I loved what I experienced in the beta, it was amazing."

"How far did you get in the beta?"

"Floor six, Kirito got farther than the rest, he got to floor eightish I think."

"Oh, I've heard of him. A lot of people don't have high opinion of him, what about you?"

"Were friends, I met him in the beta. Other than him and Argo I didn't get along well with many of the other beta testers. If it wasn't for him I wouldn't have gotten onto the assault team, I was the only orange player on the team. I just hope we can clear this place before they clear the game. I don't even want to think about being stuck here when the game is cleared." I still couldn't dare to tell her about our real situation.

"Where's the team at now?" I'm glad she didn't ask why not.

"They had just got to seventy five I pulled out my friends list to see Kirito's location, how I usually check the frontlines progress. It said Kirito was on floor twenty two, so I decided to check Asuna's location, also floor twenty two. They were probably helping some players on the lower floor. I closed my menu.

"I think we'll have plenty of time." Philia had taken off her coat and was using it as a pillow.

"Yeah..." I just now noticed without her coat, her outfit doesn't cover much. "Lukas...you're creeping out." Philia had become uncomfortable when she caught me staring.

"Sorry..."

"Pervert." Well that's just great. It got later and later, I stared at the ceiling, I knew what I had to do, clear the Hollow Area, save Philia, and get the hell out of Aincrad. It wasn't long before sleep had taken me.

* * *

 **Well there's chapter 7, I may not update as frequently with my senior year of high school coming up, but I will stay dedicated to this fic, please review and tell me what you think.**


	8. Stained Red

I remember the day Kayaba said that that this game would kill us, I was an idiot for not believing him. It had been five hours after the game master told us why we couldn't log out. I didn't believe Kayaba because I doubted a death game was even possible, but I didn't know much about Kayaba and I didn't know what his technology was fully capable of.

 **November 6, 2022 - Day 1 of Sword Art Online**

I had found a dungeon below the town of beginnings, I didn't recognize it from the beta. A lot of these enemies were strong, I had way too many close shaves, these fights were very tedious, one wrong move and I was dead. Thankfully, I was able to level up pretty quickly. Just a few enemies and I was up to level eight.I was at a point where the enemies were too powerful to even hurt. So I made use of some veil potions. I made my way to a treasure chest just before the potion expired. I opened the chest and found a powerful one handed sword, but I couldn't equip it since my one handed sword skill and strength stat were to low

"Damn, too low." I said, I then closed the item menu. Feeling someone was behind me I turned around and caught someone's arm who was planning to plunge his dagger into my back. I twisted their arm and they lost their dagger, they backed up and pulled out a sword. I picked up the dagger they lost and I waited for him to strike. He came at me full speed, I blocked and dodged his strikes. I noticed he left himself open when he went for an overhead slash, I plunged the dagger into his chest and dragged it downwards. I finished him with a slash across the neck he burst into pixels. We were both green cursored, but I was the first to land a hit, so I was marked as an orange player.

 **December 1**

I was helping try to find the boss room on my own. My cursor was still orange, I was about to call it a day when I spotted a band six players, angry and armed.

"Give us all your items and no one get hurt." one of them said, pointing his sword at me.

"And I should comply because?"

"You're a beta tester, it's all because of the beta testers we new players are struggling, and the ones who caused the two thousand deaths!" After that explanation, I laughed a bit. I knew that beta testers were heavily scrutinized, the new players think it's our fault they can't adapt as easily.

"What's so funny?!" They didn't seem to like my amusement.

"What's funny is you think us beta testers owe you some compensation for your trouble. I think your lack of knowledge of the game is enough compensation." I knew I was jerking their chains.

"I don't owe you anything, so why don't you go grovel to someone who cares."

"You asked for it!" One of them charged me, I pulled out my dagger. I dodged two of his strikes and swept his legs, grounding him. I plunged my dagger into his forehead.

"Damn you!" Another came at me from behind. Picking up his fallen comrades sword, I dodged his axe swing and decapitated him.

"Retreat!" The remaining three ran for it, I decided to look for a place to crash. I wondered how my family was doing. My stepfather went back to Sweden to see if he could regain custody of my little brother and sister. I don't think any of my family knows I'm even in this game.

 **January 31, 2024**

After two years and this supposed "death game" hasn't ended. I hadn't killed anybody since that band of angry noobs. I was trying to grind my one handed sword skill, I still had that sword I got beneath the town of beginnings and my skill level with one handed swords wasn't high enough, consequence of mainly using daggers. A strange players approached me, The most distinctive feature was a blue streak tattoo on his face.

"You must this Lukas I've head so much about."

"Yeah, and who are you?" I had my weapon ready, not to sure about this situation.

"Just someone looking for recruits. I'm part of a guild of other orange players, player the front lines left behind. We need to look out for each other, which is why I want you to join us."

"...Alright, I'm in." I reluctantly answered.

"Welcome aboard Lukas. You can call me PoH."

 **February 18, 2024**

"No please! You don't know what you're doing!"

"I know full well what I'm doing." I said as I finished them off.

"Come on Lukas, it's no fun if you kill them immediately!"

"Shut up, do as you want I'm done for the day." I was told that player had false information on our guild Laughing Coffin, this is the second of these players I eliminated, this time the guy I ditched insisted he went with me, he must have been bored. Even though I'm part of the guild, I was hardly ever with them

 **7:35 PM**

I found the PoH and his comrades XaXa and Johnny Black and two others slowly killing two players, they were paralyzed and bleeding. I watched from a distance, I saw the looks of the guild members, they enjoyed every second of it, I looked to the victims, the looks on their faces, and their cries, nothing but pain and agony. It hit me, all of this seemed too real to be just a game. I heard final screams of the victims, what I had just witnessed, it was disgusting, and I realized Kayaba was telling the truth, it truly was a death game. I got as far away from there as I could, I know what that player I killed earlier was talking about, he was going to warn the assault team about Laughing Coffin, and the danger they posed.

"Take me away Lucifer..." I said as I fell to my knees when I couldn't run anymore. Several monsters surrounded me, I didn't care, this is what I had coming. I closed my eyes and waited for it to be over. I opened my eyes to see the monsters slain, I got a look at who saved me. The Black Swordsman, Kirito, and fellow beta tester.

"Why?... Why would you save me? I've killed five players!-"

"It's not too late for you Lukas. Join me on the front lines, help us clear the game so no one else has to die." Kirito approached me, and held out his hand. I took his hand and he pulled me to my feet. He was right, I can make things right by helping end the game, and Laughing Coffin, hasn't seen the last of me, I'll meet them in hell, and I'll be the one to send them there.

* * *

 **Well there's chapter 8, I figured I would rewind a bit to shed some light on Lukas before he was killed and condemned to the Hollow Area. Next chapter will be back to Lukas and Philia making their way through the Hollow Area. Remember to review and tell me what you think.**


	9. For What Reason

**Well took awhile, but here it is.**

* * *

 **8:00 AM**

I had woken up from the best sleep I had in a long time. Today was the day we take out the Bastia Gate boss. Philia was still snoozing, she was snoring lightly, but not loud enough that it would keep people awake.

"Philia wake up." I nudged her a bit.

"Mmm... Five more minutes..." she mumbled.

"Du måste skämta." I said under my breath. "Hey, get up." I nudged her with my foot a few times.

"Huh? Oh... morning Lukas." That worked.

"Ready to take down the boss?"

"Yeah." She got up and put her coat back on, although now that I got a better look at it, it wasn't really a coat, it was more of a cape with a hood. I used the console to teleport us to Bastia Gate.

 **Bastia Gate**

We returned to the Hollow Gate in front of the tower, I held up Proof of Dragon Sovereignty and the gate vanished.

"Let's kill this dragon." I said.

"Right." We entered the structure, named the **Ruined Tower**. I thought the Forest Maze back in Sylvendys was difficult to navigate, but this was something else. It was even worse when we got to the upper floors.

"I swear if I see another warp pad, I'm going to go insane." I complained.

"At least we're almost there." Philia said as we stepped on another one.

"Thank God...The stairs." I said before we climbed up. We were climbing on some platforms on the outside of the tower, I looked over the edge, we had to watch our steps even closer now. The boss appeared when we reached the top, my biggest concern was it knocking us off the side. I looked at its four health bars and its name, Zodias the Blade Dragon. We drew our blades and went to battle.

The Dragon Let out an ear piercing roar, and charged at us like a missile. It then made a u-turn to strike us with it's tail. We managed to evade it, I felt the air from the attack just above my head, I'm pretty sure it cut some of my hair. Philia was the first to land a hit, having landed a strike on the dragons left leg, which didn't do much. After the dragon repositioned itself, I noticed it was getting ready to charge us. I used my Fad Edge dagger skill, landing a barrage on the dragon's face. The dragon did a sideways loop, and I was cut lightly, but it still took a decent chunk out of my HP. When I recovered I decided to try something.

"Philia I'm going to draw out it's attacks, when it attacks me, strike in the back!" I ordered. I noticed when the dragon wants to slash one us it had to turn away from the target, so while the dragon's blade tail was locked onto one of us, the other could hit it.

"I'm on it!" She acknowledged my plan and went to go behind the dragon, it turned its attention to her. I ran up and slashed and stabbed at its abdomen, it targeted me again and went for a slash with it's tail. Like I planned Philia was able to strike it's backside, however it seemed that the back was more protected. Philia managed to hang onto the dragon and struck it in the back of the neck with a Rapid Bite dagger skill, it did a larger chunk of damage. The dragon shook her off.

"The back of it's neck, it's a weak spot!" she said.

"Got it!" This time the dragon attacked Philia, she slid under it's tail and got a stab on it's abdomen, I attacked the back of the neck with an Accel Raid skill, landing eight consecutive hits. I jumped off, and got a glance at it's health, we had breached the second health bar. The dragon's tail started glowing. It did a slash movement and created a sword beam flying right at me, I dashed back to avoid it, and I nearly fell off the side, but I was able to keep my balance. The dragon was locked on to me, and went to slash me again, except this time it was moving a little faster. I dodged two fast slashes, but did get a hit with the the third one, which dropped my health into the yellow. The dragon turned sideways to slash me again, so I plunged my dagger into its belly with a Rapid Bite skill. The dagger dragged along the length of the dragons underside. Philia followed up with a Mirage Fang skill, landing six slashes on it's back. It turned attention to Philia, and dashed straight at her. Using the bulk of it's body rather than it's tail. Unprepared, she was knocked over the side, luckily I was fast enough to grab her arm, she lost her weapon though.

"I got you." I said.

"Look out!" she warned me of the dragon back behind me. I used a Quick Throw skill and I threw my dagger at the dragon's face, after impact the dagger respawned in my hand. The dragon was distracted long enough for me to pull Philia up.

"Let's go!" I shouted. She ran at the dragon and I tossed her my dagger, she used a Rapid Bite on it's snout. Rearing back in pain, it exposed its underside. She tossed me my dagger back.

"Switch!"

"Switching!" I caught my blade and activated an Accel Raid and rapidly attacked the dragon's neck. We knew we won when it burst into pixels.

"We did it!" Philia was the first of us to say.

"Yeah, that could have been a lot worse." I said.

"Hey is the pendent glowing?"

"Oh right." I pulled it out and it was glowing again. "I guess we can move on from this area."

"Now we just need to find where to go."

"I saw what I think is the way on our way to the Dragon's Nest." I pulled out a teleport crystal.

"Are we teleporting?"

"I'm not going back on those fucking warp circles." I said.

 **Guardians Podium**

I made it to the gate I had spotted when we first came this way.

"Here it is, let's try it." I held up the pendent and the gate flickered out of existence.

"It worked! I guess we're one step closer."

"Yeah, let's keep moving." We pushed forward, we soon made it to where our only way down was a few drops between several smaller floating islands. We eventually found ourselves in a new area, **Graceleaf Beach**. I looked around, there were a lot of amphibious and crustacean like monsters, and some monsters that looked like out water stingrays or something. Plus quite large pieces of coral.

"Wow, what a beautiful beach!" Philia said, and it certainly was.

"Last time I went to a beach was back when I still lived in Stockholm." I said.

"Ah! Look, look! A suspicious looking cave over there!" I could tell someone's radar was beeping

"Heh heh...Hoping for some pirates treasure are you? You really are a treasure hunter to the bone."

"Don't make fun of me!" She kicked my foot.

"I'm sorry, anyway do you want to look for a teleporter and take a break back at the Administration Room? I asked.

"Sure." We found a teleporter on the shore and warped back to the Administration Area.

 **Administration Area**

"Hey Philia, I'm going to go check on something back in Aincrad, I shouldn't be too long."

"Okay." She said, I teleported back to Aincrad. I wanted to see what was going on Floor 22, since I didn't know why Kirito and Asuna were there, unless there was something that needed their attention.

 **Floor 22**

The twenty second floor I would go to clear my mind, the sound of flowing water did that, and the floor was quiet other than sounds you would hear in nature. The only players there were just players who were living as if it was their regular lives. I spotted Kirito and Asuna on one of the trails, and they were not in their normal outfits, I assumed they were just taking a break from the frontlines, until I got a look at their hands, more specifically their ring fingers. They were engaged, something I doubt anybody saw coming. They hardly got along when I saw them interact, always snapping at each other over something. I found the marriage system in here interesting, players married have a shared inventory, even though guild members can have shared storage. I know the engagement ring has some enhancements to it, even though I doubt many players have many access to it, since there is a large gap between the number of male and female players. That and marriage was restricted to a male and female player, or at least I hope it was.

"Well it looks like I have nothing to worry about here. I wonder if the assault team made it floor 76 yet." I went back to the teleport gate, they were still on floor 75, I doubted they would make much leeway without Kirito or Asuna. I knew Heathcliff was strong, how strong I had no idea, I also never got a chance to meet him personally. I checked my messages, still nothing from Mei. I decided to look at the monument myself.

 **Floor 1**

I walked into the Black Iron Palace, I needed to know if that the PoH me and Philia had seen was the real one or not. A lot of the Laughing Coffin members we encountered so far were ones that perished, some of them I killed myself. The threat of condemned players would never leave, meaning if that PoH was the real one and he was condemned, regardless how many times we killed him, he would just come back. I found the monument and searched the names.

"Hmm, so he's not dead... but what if he was glitched in like Philia?" I didn't think about that, I was curious what was up with Mei. I felt I'd kept Philia waiting long enough and went back to the Hollow Area.

 **Administration Area**

"Sorry if I took too long." I said, Philia looked like she just finished using the console.

"No problem Lukas. Hey if we're going to go back to Graceleaf, I found this one place I'd like to check out."

"Where did you have in mind?"

"The place was called Bastia Gate Remnant. I checked the Hollow Map on the console and it showed there was a church like structure there." She explained.

"Church... Maybe there's a karma recovery quest there." It did seem kind of Ironic there was a church in the Hell of SAO. We teleported back to the beach, the beach split into five different paths, one leading back to the Floating Islands, the Northern Path lead to the **Pharos Sewer Channels** , the southern path lead to the **Path To Sworn Salvation** , The east lead to **Fortress of the Pirate King.** We took the south eastern path to where the church was located, **Bastia Gate Remnant**.

 **Bastia Gate Remnant**

"Hey there it is, let's check it out." I said, the church from the outside reminded me of the church I went to back in Stockholm. We opened the doors, even the inside made think back to when I still lived in Sweden, back when I was still with my little brother and sister, I'd want nothing more than to reunite with them one day. An NPC approached us, a monk.

"Greetings. It appears you have something you would like to get off your chest." The monk said. I get it, confess to your sins.

"Umm... Uh... Yes, I do." Philia managed to say.

"I wish I could help... Alas, our confessional has been destroyed."

"I think this could be it." I said,

"Really!?"

"A quest where you help the church rebuild their confessional, sounds about right to me."

"So we confess once we finish?"

"I believe so." I did wonder if just this alone could absolve us our sins, so to speak. Of course virtual absolution likely holds little meaning back in the real world. "Shall we get started?"

"Yeah." We exited the building, our quest into said we needed five High Quality wood.

"Hey did you get anything from those tree monsters fought on our way here?" I asked.

"Hold on... Yeah, I have one of the items we need."

"Well, let's get to some lumberjacking." I decided to level up my one handed sword skill during this quest.

 **After some collecting**

I found it interesting that the trees were called Ark Trees. We were using their wood for the church. I got two, while Philia got four, so we had one extra. We returned to the church to deliver our spoils.

"Oh wonderful! This is just what we need to rebuild the church!" The monk was overjoyed.

"..." I noticed Philia had a look of disappointment. The confessional was repaired quickly thanks to game mechanics.

"Thank you so much! We couldn't have rebuilt this church without you, this is a small thing, but it's the most I can do to repay you." The monk gave us a Cleric's Cross. The Monk walked to another part of the church.

"I guess this isn't it."

"I know... I'm really sorry Philia."

"Why are you apologizing? You've already done so much for me."

"I feel like I got your hopes up for nothing. There just has to be a way to fix this." I said frustrated. "I guess we should keep looking.

"Lukas, I'm grateful for what you're doing for me, but don't you more important things to do on the assault team?"

"The assault team doesn't need me to progress, right now this my main priority."

"...Why are you doing all this for me?"

"Well do you want me to just leave you here?!" Because I won't, you're my friend Philia."

"But I'm... I don't think I've done anything to deserve this kindness, why do you-?"

"Because I care about you alright!" I said it harsher than I wanted it to sound. Philia wasn't sure how to respond to me. Philia decided to make her way to the doors.

"Are you coming?"

"...You go ahead, I need to stay here for a bit."

"Okay." Philia left the church and I sat down on one of the rows of seats, I heard nothing but the sound of silence. I remember when Kirito told me it wasn't too late for me, the day I joined the frontlines, redemption was what I was looking for, but redemption in who's eye's? The players I killed, the lord's eyes, or my own eyes? What was I after, forgiveness, self restoration, or absolution? I look down at my Light Ring, and thinking about Philia, I looked to the stained glass windows up in the front, where the sunlight shined through.

"Lord have mercy on her."

* * *

 **Well there's chapter 9, I feel I can either update this fic quickly or slowly depending how much time I want to put in this. As for where Lukas and Philia's relationship goes, I'm still trying to decide that. Remember to review and tell me what you think.**


	10. Looming Darkness

**Graceleaf Beach - 3rd Person**

Philia had returned to the beach where she waited for Lukas, The words of PoH still bothered her.

"All alone I see." Out of the shadows, PoH showed himself.

"You again!?" Philia had her hand on her weapon.

"Tell me, how long do plan on being friendly with that Swed?"

"That's none of your business."

"I guess that means he hasn't told you, regardless you'll figure out what you really are soon enough... Then again, why don't you tell me... Hollow."

"H-Hollow, what are you talking about?!" Philia was taken aback

"An understandable response... you'll soon learn that you are bound here permanently."

"I-I don't believe you... Lukas warned me about you!"

"Heh heh heh... Tell me how much do you really trust him? How much has he not told you, do you even believe everything he has told you?" PoH knew he had backed her into a corner.

"I-"

"I'll tell you something he hasn't told you. You and me, we're not real people, just fakes made by data in this world, the Hollow Area. When this game is cleared, we die with it."

"NO! I'm human! I'm nothing like you!"

"And how do you know this? Did the Swed tell you? Listen, you and me are more alike than you think, we're not real, we're both orange cursored, and we're both murderers. I know every detail of what you did."

"H-How do you know about that!?"

"What's important is that I know... Last time we met, you seemed to have loyalty to that Swed, but you want nothing to do with me. Lukas and I are more alike than he wants to admit, let's just say we go a long way back. But aside from that, he could easily just be using you as a guide to gather resources for the assault team, the players that would lead to the death of us."

"Liar! You're lying!"

"Just keep telling yourself that, but it will happen in the end. He will put the two of us and many others in the Hollow Area, that's why I'm going to stop him... which is why I need your help."

"Y-You want me to betray him?!"

"Oh no no no no no, all you have to do is bring him to me. You don't need to worry about anything else, I won't kill him, I promise."

"I- I can't." Philia knew Lukas warned her about PoH, but any doubts about Lukas were beginning to yell at her louder and louder.

"All were going to do is make him part of this world, just like us."

"Part of this world..."

"Think about it, do you want to die and you will slowly be forgotten by him as this game and world becomes a distant memory. Or stay with him in this world for eternity?"

"I'll expect an answer from you next time we meet." PoH left the scene and left Philia to her thoughts.

"Lukas..." She fell to her knees and clutched her head. "I don't know what to do..."

 **Lukas POV**

I wound up staying in the church for almost an hour, what initially was going to be a quick prayer, turned into a bunch of reminiscing back to when I still lived in Sweden. I missed those days, back when things were okay, back when I would hear the church bells chime on sunday morning, and back when my family was still together. I would want nothing more than to be with my siblings again. I do miss Sweden, even though it's where a lot of my life problems began.

"I better get going." I got up from my seat, I got a message notification, it was from Philia, she told me she went back to the Administration Area. I decided to scout around on my own for a bit. I looked at the map, sometimes you can learn where to go by interpreting path or location names. I the path that gave me the impression of finding was **The Path to Sworn Salvation**. It was the world "salvation" that's speaking to me. I followed the path to the location called **Sea Drake's Roost.** When I entered, I spotted what looked like a high priority target. The best way I could describe it was a mix between a legless three headed dragon and a sea horse.

"I think I'm better off getting Philia before taking on that thing." I turned around and made my way back to the teleport device on the beach. Something had been bothering me, I had thought about telling Philia what really caused my cursor, the players I killed, what I was before joining the frontlines, but I could never get around the mental barriers. Other than that these flashes back to November 29, five years ago. The worst day of my life doesn't even begin to describe it, someone who meant the world to me left this world behind too soon. I keep seeing how they died, I kept my mouth shut about it back home so no one knew about it. Of course they quit occurring during the late days of my first year of high school. Yet it was few days ago they started occurring again, and I had a good idea why.

 **Hollow Area - Location Unknown - 3rd Person**

"I can't keep this up." Mei was clutching her head in pain. "I'm running out of time... There's only one thing left I can do." Due to not being able to do her primary function as a Mental Health Counseling Program, she had been having error after error pile up. She had been able to bear it up until now.

 **Aincrad - Floor 1**

She ran to the console beneath the Town of Beginnings, her errors were the least of her problems, the Cardinal System had caught onto her prohibited interactions with the with players in the Hollow Area.

"This is my only hope." She hit the enter key just before the system began to delete her from SAO.

 **Hollow Area - Lukas POV**

I teleported back to the Administration Area, I found Philia sitting against the console.

"Sorry I took a while." I said catching her attention.

"Oh...Don't worry about it Lukas." She looked like she was in some sort of dilemma from what I could tell.

"Are you okay?"

"No, I'm fine... So did you find anything while you were there?"

"Yeah, I found what looks like a high priority target in the Seadrake's Roost. I thought I would come get you before going any further."

"Okay, let's get going."

 **Graceleaf - The Seadrake's Roost**

"There it is." I pointed to the dragon. "That's the sjöhäst like dragon." Philia looked at me as if I was stupid or something.

"A what?"

"I don't know what they're called outside of Sweden. Anyway let's kill this thing regardless." I said.

"I've got your back."

 **Timeskip**

After a hard fought battle the creature burst into pixels.

"We did- what the?!" We felt a tremor beneath us, and we saw the water had drained.

"The water drained!" Philia pointed out.

"Yeah, hmm, I doubt this would have happened without a good reason." I thought.

"Hey, when I looked at the hollow map I saw another tower structure, maybe there's something there." Philia showed me on her map.

"Alright let's go... I hope there isn't any warp pads."

 **Fortress of the Pirate King - Top Floor**

We eventually got to the top of the tower, we were confronted by a strong looking grim reaper like monster, who carried a lantern.

"Certainly looks like a high priority target. Let's take it out." I pulled out my dagger.

 **Aincrad - No POV**

Akihiko Kayaba, or better known as Aincrad as Heathcliff, was still able to communicate with staff outside of SAO. Mostly those loyal to him regardless.

"Mr Kayaba, we've detected strange activity in Hollow Area."

"What kind of activity?"

"There seems to be some unusual actions from a condemned player. It seems he somehow managed to enter Aincrad."

"Hmm... Keep me updated on this player."

"Yes sir, currently he is in the third area in the Hollow Area."

 **Lukas POV**

We had managed to defeat the monster and received a weapon called the Quarry Mattock.

"Bonus damage to rocks? Seems kinda random doesn't it?" Philia asked me.

"I doubt this would have dropped if there wasn't somewhere around here that needs it to be used. Let's keep looking." We decided to search the **Mines of the Betrayed Rest**. it was the "Mines" part that spoke to me. It looked like an abandoned mineshaft overrun by large ants.

"Heh heh." I let ot a little chuckle due to remembering a funny little memory.

"What's so funny?" Philia was confused at my laughter.

"Oh, these ants remind me of when my little brother had an ant farm and it didn't end well."

"What happened?"

"He forgot to close the lid and they wound up in my little sister's room, scared the hell out of her." I said.

"I guess that would scare someone. The sooner you get out of SAO the sooner you get to see them right?"

"Not likely."

"Why not?"

"They don't even know I'm in here. I haven't seen either of them in forever. Short reason is my family split, my sister Eria stayed back in Sweden with my mother, and my brother Judai came to Japan with me and my father. Judai wound up back in our mother's custody after him and dad were in a drunk driving accident, they both survived but it paralyzed him and he's confined a wheelchair. I haven't seen either of them since then." I explained my sad story.

"Oh... Luke I'm so sorry."

"Thanks... The bible always said when things happen, they happen for a reason. No matter my faith I can never not question whatever reason." We soon found our path blocked by a stone wall.

"That's weird, it has a health bar as if it was an enemy." Philia pointed out.

"... I wonder if this is what that club was for." I opened my item menu and equipped it. "I swung at the wall three times and it burst into pixels.

"It worked!"

"We're making good progress, let's keep moving." I kept the club equipped as we proceeded. We did have to pick off a few ants. It felt awkward since I'm used to using lightweight daggers so I can move around more. I remember I once got an Elucidator myself, but I didn't keep it very long, to heavy for my taste, I gave it to Kirito even though he already had his two swords. He said he could use it as a backup if one his primary blades broke.

As we kept going I noticed several minecarts on incomplete rails. Occasionally I'd see huge quartz - like eventually got to the end of the mines and we found a silver treasure chest.

"Can you open it Philia?"

"Of course I can." She opened up the chest, we got a rusted key.

"We got a key..."

"Where could it open?"

"Wait, those gargoyle like marks... maybe that's a clue." I suggested.

"Maybe, but where would find a door for it?" We kept looking around for the door, our search brought us back to the **Fortress of the Pirate King.** We found a door with a golden keyhole on it. Our key worked and kept making our way through the fortress, we found another door with a red jewel, meaning the boss was just ahead of us.

"Wow, the boss is already here." Philia said.

"Yeah... we've already gone this far, let's take it out."

"Right." We opened the door and awaited what lied ahead of us.

* * *

 **Well there's chapter 10, sorry if this took too long, school and what not, remember to review and tell me what you think**


	11. Further Questions No Answers

**Took awhile but here it is, chapter 11, if there are any grammar errors I missed it's probably because trying to edit at 4 in the morning isn't the best time to do so. Enjoy.**

* * *

We entered the boss room, and I spotted the familiar looking boss. I saw its name, Detonator the Kobold Lord. It looked like a stronger version of Ilfang the Kobold Lord on floor 1. I knew that in the beta it would start out with an axe and shield, but when it's health got halfway down, it would shift to a Talwar. Although based on what I heard that was changed from the beta. I hope my knowledge of the beta version of Ilfang would give us a boost. I noticed it had three health bars instead four like the previous bosses.

"Philia, I fought a similar boss in the beta. When his HP reaches half, it'll pull out a stronger sword and it's attack patterns will change, be careful." I warned.

"Okay, I will." We approached the boss and it stood from it's throne. It drew its weapons and let out a loud roar, summoning four kobolds.

"Can you handle the four momentarily?" I asked

"I think so, why?"

"I'm going to try and put some distance between the minions and the boss."

"Alright, be careful." We approached them and they charged us. I noticed how Detonator was slower than Ilfang was. I assumed that this boss traded speed for power. Philia clashed with the weaker sentinels. Detonator attempted to attack her as well. I used a Quick Throw skill tossing my dagger it, I missed slightly and grazed it's snout.

"Over here asshole!" I used another quick throw, the boss used it's shield and deflected the attack. I ran at the boss and it swung it's axe at me, I slid under and thrust my dagger into its gut and repeatedly drove it in and out. The boss knocked me away with a hard shield swing, slamming me into a wall, dropping my HP by a decent sized chunk. I went back on the offensive. I repeatedly threw slash and thrust one after another, but the shield would not budge. It's eyes emitted a red glow and let out a loud howl, It had enough force to blow me back. Philia wasn't in the line of sight, but was disorientated by the sudden volume change. She was left open for a hit from the sentinels. I saw she managed to take down one of them, and the remaining three had chunks of their HP depleted. Gauging the distance from the boss and them, I had enough time to help take out the remaining sentinels. Philia managed to take out the third before I could act, I used a Quick Throw skill to take out the last one, Philia joined me fighting Detonator. I looked to see I only did about a twelfth of damage to it's first health bar.

"It must have some high defense." Philia noted.

"We just have to get around the shield... Hey, I'll knock his shield away switch out then attack." I said.

"Got it." I shifted to an extra one handed sword I had acquired from a chest back in Aincrad. It wasn't too heavy, but I thought I could get more done with it here. I used a sword skill to knock the shield aside.

"Switch, now!"

"Switching in!" Philia switched with me and unleashed a barrage of attacks. The I took the opportunity to get the boss from boss shook us off, I attempted to go for it's axe arm, but I was tossed aside.

"...Damn..." I said recollecting myself.

"Lukas!" Philia was caught off guard long enough to slammed by detonators shield. Sending her a good distance away. Detonator made her it's target, but the boss wasn't the only thing targeting her. As soon as I got up again, for more Kobolds spawned, less than 4 yards away from her.

"Shit!" In a pure panic move, I threw my sword at the boss and ran toward Philia. My sword lodged itself in its collar bone area. I slid toward Philia and was able to get her out of harm's way, but I was hit by three of the four kobolds, dropping my HP into near the critical range. "Are you okay?"

"I'm okay... but what about you?" She noticed my health bar

"I'll live."We regained our footing on time to avoid the bosses axe, which wound up killing the sentinels. My sword was still lodged into the boss's body, I used a potion to get my HP back into the green. The boss lept towards us, we evaded the strike, the boss was vulnerable long enough for me to reclaim my sword. I knocked the shield out of the way.

"Switch!"

"Got it!" Philia unleashed a flurry of rapid slashes on Detonators gut. I drank a STR potion and attacked Detonator who was off balance from Philia's attacks. I used the Vertical Square skill, looking at the health bar I could tell the potion helped.

"If you have any strength potions use them, they help!"

"Okay!" Philia leapt out of axe range and drank a STR potion of her own.

 **Aincrad - No POV**

"Mr. Kayaba, we have updates on the glitched player in the Hollow Area."

"Where is his location at this moment?"

"He's fighting Detonator in the third area, I think he plans to get to the lower terminal."

"Continue to keep a close watch on this player. If he does make it to the terminal we may need to take action. What ever happened to the overseer of the Hollow Area?"

"She's gone off the radar, sir, I think cardinal might have deleted her."

 **Elsewhere in Aincrad**

"Thank you for meeting up with me Kirito." Frukt said

"No problem, so what did you need?" Kirito asked

"It's about when Lukas died, is there anything you can tell me about who killed him?"

"His killer wore a dark pancho, and I couldn't see their face. I chased them for a while. But what's weird was when I tried to use a throwing pick to slow them down, it bounced off and I swear I saw an Immortal Object icon." Kirito explained

"Immortal Object... Has any other incident happened like that before?"

"I asked Argo and she has no such info, and I haven't heard of any incident since then."

"Just what is happening?" Frukt said bewildered.

 **Hollow Area - Lukas POV**

Having managed to bring it's health down to it' last health bar, Detonator threw away his axe and shield and drew the longsword on his back.

"It's the home stretch, get ready Philia." I said.

"Right." The boss charged us and lept upward. We really had to wrap this up, both of us are down in the Yellow, although I had it worse than Philia did. The boss slammed it's sword on the ground creating a shockwave. Philia managed to avoid it, I wasn't so lucky. Although it didn't damage me, it gave me a speed debuff.

"Shit." I swore, I relied on my speed to avoid damage any debuff there was bad. The boss targeted me, I was able to block an overhead attack, but try blocking a very heavy sword with one that's less a fourth of its weight. Philia took the opening and stuck it repeatedly in the back. I noticed she was able to inflict bleeding status on the boss.

"Philia, let's give it a hard push!"

"Okay!" Philia got around the blade and unleashed a Mirage Fang on the bosses gut. While the boss was suffering from the hit stun I unleashed a Vertical Square on its back. The boss swung it's blade at me. I countered with a Weapon Bash, stunning it. Philia drank her last STR potion and activated an Accel Raid skill landing eight swift slashes on the bosses back. I followed up with a Vorpal Strike. My sword must have used it's last durability as my sword's blade broke off when I tried to pull it out. The boss's bleeding status drained what little HP it had left. The bost burst into pixels. The broken blade fell to the ground before shattering in the same manner. I tossed the broken swords handle away.

"We did it Lukas!" Philia said excitedly.

"Yeah, I couldn't have done it without you." I said.

"Y-you won't get anywhere praising me!" She was clearly embarrassed.

"But I mean it, let's find that gate." I said showing the blowing pendent.

We made our way to the location that was called **Graceleaf Tunnel** , it was here we found the gate. I held up the pendent and the gate faded. I looked at my hollow map and he next location was called the **Driogeer Skycaves Area.** I looked behind me to notice Philia's pace had slowed down, I could tell something was on her mind. I slowed down so she could catch up.

"Everything okay Philia?" I asked concerned.

"Yeah, I'm fine." She replied, although I doubted her honesty. We eventually made it to the next area. We were on a fairly wide ledge, I could see a long drop to the left of us. It was deeper than that dragons nest in floor 55. I actually went down that nest to collect some ore for a quest, and for some reason I saw a hole in the snow like someone fell in face first. My only guess was that some idiot fell in and tried to run up the wall. Although I doubted anyone was that stupid. Along our other side I could see some cave openings, my guess is they may lead us to where we need to be.

"It's getting late, do you want to call it a day?" I asked.

"Yeah..."

 **Administration Area. - 9:50 PM**

"You sure everything is alright Philia?"

"I'm sure Lukas."

"You're acting like it's the exact opposite."

"I'm fine okay!"

"...Okay...förlåt för omsorg." I said before laying down to get some sleep.

 **Driogeer Caves - Unknown Location**

"So you've come Philia."

"..."

"So what's your answer, heh heh heh heh.

"I've decided-"

 **Administration Area**

 ****I shot wide awake, I looked over to see Philia sleeping soundly.

"Thank goodness." I looked at my clock, midnight. I laid back again, although sleep didn't come back to me as easily. That may just been a dream, but it seemed too real to be a dream.

* * *

 **Reason why it took so long to update is 10% laziness, 10% Writers Block, 10% Lack of Motivation, 70% School. Thanks to winter break I should be posting a bit more frequently. Remember to review and tell what you think.**


	12. Tears of Treachery

**A fast update, I had this ready to post so I figured why not. Here's chapter 12, enjoy.**

* * *

I opened my eyes to see the ceiling of the Administration Area, I sat up and looked at my clock, 11:30, a lot later than normal for me to wake up.

"I see you're awake now." Philia was sitting in front of the console.

"Yeah... You could have woken me up you know." I replied.

"I didn't want to disturb you." The thought of that supposed dream I had scared me. We returned to the Driogeer SkyCaves to continue our exploration. Looking at the Hollow Map, there was a section of the Skycaves that were disconnected from the area we were in. That usually means it's accessed by teleporter. The first new area in Driogeer, called **Shrine of the Pursuer** , had the look of an abandoned temple than it did a cave. The deeper we went the more of a maze the area was. It still beats those damn warp pads. Several doors had lead to nothing but an empty room. Eventually we made some progress when we reached the **Central Rim**. I activated a teleport device that we can use to get from this point to the Administration Area and back. Eventually we made it to the area where a teleporter could high likely be in the **Ruined Steps of Driogeer 1F** , because at that point we had checked everywhere we could currently have checked. Like I suspected we found the teleporter but it wouldn't work.

"You've got to be kidding me." I pounded the the device in frustration. "Got any ideas Philia?"

"No Lukas..."

"Damn it... want to head back? We covered quite a bit of ground today."

"Sure." As we made our way back, things started to get weirder. I saw several visions as we walked, many of them were of players I never met before. I saw what they experienced. Nothing but anger, frustration, despair, agony, pain, and so many suicides. It was starting to freak me out.

 **Administration Area**

"Hey Philia, I feel like I should check on things back in Aincrad." I said,

"Okay... Lukas... When you get back do you want to explore the Skycaves just for some treasure?" she asked. I haven't gone treasure hunting with her since I had to help defeat that giant golem.

"Yeah, I'd love to, see you soon Philia."

 **Town of Beginnings**

Although I lied when I wanted to check on things I figured I may as well do so. In truth I needed to clear my head. Too much kept nagging me from within. First Philia not acting like herself and the visions. Why me is all I can ask, why put me through all this? I remember one of the things I learned from the bible was everything happens for a reason. But whatever reason God is making go through this hell is beyond me. Was I being punished for all the fights I got into in school, or snitching on my mother? Or perhaps trying to help me in a very rugged fashion? Usually the slower I walked the easier it is clear my mind.

 **Laughing Coffin Base**

I came up here to find any trace of activity from the guild or PoH. On the trail up here I spotted a dagger lodged in the ground. This must have been the one that killed me. After a long while of scanning I got nothing. I made my way back to the teleport gate at a slow pace. By the time I got back it was already pretty late. I decided to crash just outside the town.

 **Administration Area - Next day**

"Sorry I took longer than I hoped for." I apologized since I hadn't informed her I'd be staying overnight.

"It's okay, so do you still want to explore with me?"

"Of course I do. I'm ready when you are.

 **Driogeer Caves**

Everytime I looked at Philia, she seemed out of it, more so than she was earlier. She didn't really seem to be paying much attention to her surroundings.

"Let's take break if you're not feeling well." I said stopping.

"Okay... I'm sorry I'm such a pain to-"

"Don't even talk like that." I interrupted her."You're not a pain Philia, you never have been." Someone close to me once said those same words to me, and they died the next day. It left a wound that still bleeds.

"But I..." She couldn't find the words to respond.

"Tell me the truth Philia, something is bothering you isn't there." I had get answers.

"I'm fine, really."

"No you're not, you've been acting off since we got to the Skycaves."

"I...-" she was interrupted when an injured played staggered by.

"Must keep going... almost there!" I recognized this player, but not by name. Like me , he first got his cursor turned orange from self defense. From the looks of things, he's lost it.

"Hey, are you alright?" I asked

"I'm fine...Just a little more..."

"Are you stupid, your HP is critically low!"

"Hey are you listening?! Grr... Din javla idiot!" I ran after him.

"Don't go off on your own Lukas, it's dangerous!" Philia called out to me, I halted.

"You don't let the wounded suffer. I'm not letting that happen."

"Why are you going through so much trouble?! It could be a trap from an orange guild for all we know!"

"Then I'll deal with it then... Hey asshole!" I shouted as I ran after the player, leaving Philia where she was. I caught up to him, and blocked his way.

"I must keep-" He said as he had no intention of stopping.

"You're gonna wind up dead before you get to where you're going from the looks of you!" he walked right by me. I grabbed him by the shoulder and turned him around. "You moron!" I gave him a left hook and floored him. I pinned him down and forced a potion down his throat. I knew he was a condemned player, he will respawn in here because of that, just for the cycle of pain to start over again. Better remedy the pain in the current cycle opposed to restarting it. I can only imagine what the other condemned players are experiencing. They keep on living but of from Aincrad in a virtual limbo, while clearing the game for those still in Aincrad means freedom, it spells the end for those down here.

I made my way back to Philia, I didn't go too far. On the way back, I saw another vision. This one was of me and Kirito. What was different about this one was that I saw it as if I was right behind us. I saw the dagger that killed me be thrown at my back.

"What the hell... was that vision from the person who killed me?" Now I'm starting wonder, if I wasn't brought here by just happenstance I'm starting to think whoever killed me did so for a very specific reason. Was there something here that only I could accomplish? I eventually regrouped with Philia.

"Sorry about that, did anything happen when I was gone."

"No nothing happened... what about that man?"

"I had to force him to take a potion, should ease his suffering for the time being."

"Right... you really are someone special Lukas."

"I don't feel like I am. Every player here seems to be on the verge or already has broken down, hard to imagine what's going through their minds." I thought out loud. "They don't seem to have any sense of caution or sense of danger."

"...It's because every player here are Hollows, they're just shadows."

"...Excuse me?" I never told her anything about the players here, neither the copies or the condemned.

"That man, he can't get out of here... And neither can I, I'm going to be here forever and ever..."

"No you're not, you will be freed, God be my witness." Was that what was bugging her, it had to be. "Hey, you look kind of pale, are you okay?"

"I'm okay, we can keep moving now."

"Okay, just don't push yourself too much." We went down a path that was different than when we first went down here, I hoped we could find a way to get the teleporter working while we were at it. Eventually We came to what I originally thought was a dead end.

"Take a good look at this wall Lukas." Philia pointed to the wall to our left.

"Wow, a hidden door, I'll be damned." I replied, Philia opened the door low and behold, treasure chest.

"I'm going to go open it, watch my back Lukas."

"You got it." One thing was certain, she's doing a terrible job at hiding that something is bothering her. I had my hand on my dagger, ready to defend. Philia was about to open the chest before she stopped.

"Lukas... There's something I wanted to ask."

"What would that be?"

"You never asked me how I got my orange cursor. I was wondering why."

"It never mattered to me, cursor doesn't make character, only their actions. After all we've been through, I trust you." I answered honestly.

"I... I'm not worthy of such praise."

"What do you mean? You've had my back since we first started."

"That's not what I mean... I mean... I killed someone, worse actually...I killed myself..."

"...What?" I was left speechless. Clearly there was some things Mei didn't tell me.

"When I was in the forest suddenly someone appeared in front of me...it was me. Can you believe that? The battle we had was intense... So frantic... I lost myself completely. When I finally came to my senses, the other me, who'd been right there in front of me...was gone."

"Philia..."

"My cursors always been orange ever since. I...I killed myself."

"..." I didn't know what to say

"What I did was so bad Lukas... Even if I change the color of my cursor, it won't make my guilt go away, which is why I'm going to be here in this shadow world forever." Philia couldn't hold back her tears anymore.

"You know that's not true, you're not gonna be damned to this place, I'm going to get you out of here!" That was why I didn't tell her everything, because I feared she would have lost hope, but it looked like it happened regardless.

"I wish... I wish I'd never met you. I wish I'd never have to feel this way..."

"Philia you can't give up, I know there is a way to fix this!"

"Thanks Lukas... And forgive me for this. Just hang in there..." Sensing someone behind me, I drew my dagger and turned around, only to get decked in the face, I stumbled backwards, but it wasn't the ground I met, it was a pitfall. I don't remember if I even made it to the bottom before I blacked out.

I regained consciousness in a darker part of the Skycaves. The fall was high enough to damage me, I used my last potion, which got my HP to 66% I tried to teleport out, but I couldn't, it was a no crystal zone.

"Wait a minute... No crystal zone, pitfall trap... This a PK setup." I had seen several of these in action before. Drop a player or two into a no crystal zone with tough monsters. "She fucking set me up... DAMN IT!" I threw the crystal in my hand at the wall in anger. The first vision must have been a warning I was foolish not to heed. After some deep breathing, I was able to get my priorities straight, first was get out of the dungeon. I proceeded forward into the next room, only to see the the glowing red eyes of the monsters. the dark red cursors spelled trouble. I went to pull out my dagger, only to discover I was unarmed.

* * *

 **Well there's chapter 12, I have Lukas in quite a doozy now. Remember to review and tell me what you think.**


	13. In Death's Grip

**Here's chapter 13, enjoy.**

* * *

"Shit, must have lost it on the way down." I said. Other than my dagger, the sword that I broke fighting Detonator was my only weapon besides my throwing picks, which were no help in times like this. I started to regret not doing the quest that gave the Martial Arts Skills. In addition to that, with how tight the spaces were, my stealth skill was not going to help. As my eyes adjusted I was able to spot a door. I made a break for it, but Skeleton monsters spotted me. One swung it's club at me, another thrust it's spear. I dodged the weapons and made it through the door, the skeletons still chasing me.

I turned right and opened another door. First thing I saw was a skeleton with a spear being thrust at my face. I received a gash across my left cheek as I wasn't fully able to dodge it, and the strike had also poisoned me. I made the mistake of looking behind me to see if the monsters were still chasing me. I bumped into a large ant creature with blue crystal like appendages. The impact knocked me to the ground, and the ant like monster tried to crush me with it's mandibles. Luckily, I was able to avoid taking major damage, but I was nipped in the leg trying to crawl away.

I put some distance between my pursuers and I when I made it the next door, giving me enough time to close the door and some breathing room, or so I had hoped. I looked up and noticed several sets of glowing eyes. Off the ceiling came several spiders about the size of large dogs. Many of them leaped at me. I knocked two of them out of the way with my arms, but I couldn't kill them without a weapon. I tried to make a break for it, and another attacked from the front. I tried to knock it away, but it latched on to my right arm, the momentum pulled me to the ground and I was quickly swarmed by the others. My HP slowly drained, I stopped struggling and decided to just take it. Suppose I did free myself from the Hollow Area, then what? Not like my situation back in real life was any better. However, thoughts of my brother and sister came back to me, memories of my dreams, of the three of us being together again.

"Not today Lucifer!" If I was going to die, it would be in the real world with my family standing beside me and my deathbed. With newfound strength, I was able to shake off enough of the spiders to free myself and run. Thankfully the poison had worn off, although the damage has been done, as my HP was down to around 47%. I found a small room with two chests. I hoped one had a weapon. I could tell the spiders were still behind me. I opened one and got a potion. I went to the second one, only to have a set of teeth latch onto my left arm. I had fallen for a Mimic's imitation. I swung my right fist at it, but it had about much success as one would have if they tried to punch a hard wooden box, which is nothing. I pulled as hard as I could, I was freed, but at the cost of my left hand. Eventually it would regenerate, but the amputation inflicted Bleeding status. Soon I found the rooms getting tighter and tighter. I came across a room with Orcs, the lack of space, hurt my ability to dodge and I took two nasty hits. They did a lot of damage, my HP regeneration wasn't enough if I took too many hits. I was able to shake off the other monsters that were chasing me. I found a long room with many Lizardmen and Orcs, I could actually use my stealth skills there due to the wider space. Finally, I found the light which meant I made it out, and my arm had regenerated by then.

Just when I thought I caught a break, I was surrounded by three Laughing Coffin Members, they likely were there in case I made it out to finish me off.

"Heh heh heh, look who we got boys!" one cackled maniacally.

"The backstabbing Swed in the flesh." Another said, licking his sword maniacally.

"How does it feel? First you get played so easily by our leader, and now you were betrayed by the one you went through all that fruitless labor to save- Aaagh!" I interrupted him when I threw a throwing pick at his left eye.

While he was stunned by the pain, I took his mace and knocked him to the ground with it. The one armed with the sword attacked me next. I blocked his blade and used the only mace skill I knew on his head, knocking him to the ground where I repeatedly bashed his head until he shattered into pixels. The third was hesitant, but charged me with his axe, I dropped the mace and grabbed the recently defeated players sword. I sliced off both of his legs and plunged the blade into his neck, killing him. The LC member who I blinded was still shaking off the damage of my attack.

"Here's your ticket to Hell." I grabbed him by the back of his poncho and threw him over the ledge. I heard him scream until he hit the bottom, I could tell when the shattered polygons flew into view that he didn't survive the fall. I used the teleport device to send me back to Administration Area.

 **Administration Area**

Miraculously I had made it out of there. I slumped against the console to catch my breath. After several minutes of breathing I stood up and stared at the console in front of me. My earlier anger had returned to me, I hit the console with my fist.

"Backstabbing fucking INGRATE!" If this was in the real world, my hand would be broken or bleeding right now.

"After all I've done, you drop me into a fucking death trap!- Arrgh..." I clutched my head in pain as several visions came to me. They were all were of PoH, one showed him using a terminal in a location I had not seen anywhere in the Hollow Area. The others were of him getting to Philia, when I left to go back to Aincrad and when I stayed at the church in Graceleaf. Now thinking clearly and hearing the words of their exchange, my anger subsided.

"She's just like me... tricked into doing his bidding, I shouldn't have left her alone." If he was using her to get to me, then now she had done her "part", that only meant one thing. "Oh no... I have to find her fast." I was about to panic, I had no clue where even begin looking.

" _Calm down Lukas, I can get you to her."_ It was Mei's voice.

"Mei, I can hear you, where are you?"

" _I'm communicating with you under the radar. Interacting with you in Aincrad has put me at risk of termination."_

"So that's why you've been unresponsive. Where is she now?"

" _She's in a part of the Skycaves, although I can't pinpoint where exactly. You can get to the area she's in with the teleporter that didn't work when you two first found it. It's been activated."_

"Got it." I looked at the stats of the sword I took from the Laughing Coffin grunt. It was not as light as I'd like, but it would have to do.

I used the console to send me back to the Skycaves.

* * *

 **There you go, I had to really think how Lukas would deal with a tough dungeon weaponless, remember to review and tell me what you think.**


	14. The Condemned

**Well took awhile, but here's chapter 14. I took a big risk by making some major changes from Hollow Fragment, you will probably know what I'm talking about when you read it.**

" _Italic Dialogue is Mei's dialogue"_

* * *

"Alright, back at the teleporter, let's see if it works." I activated the teleporter and it brought me to what was labeled **Driogeer Skycaves - Teleport Panel.** It looked so different. What we stood on was like the floating stone slabs I walked on in Bastia. The sides of us made me think we were in some sort of interdimensional plane. Behind us was a teleport device that resemble the one I used to get in here. On other side there was a bright blue light.

"Mei, can you hear me? Do I need to use that light?"

" _That light is what gives access to the_ _ **Halls of the Expelled**_ _. There are two switches you need to access the two lower levels they are both in the Halls."_

"Okay."

 **Halls of the Expelled**

I was now in a cyberspace like world, it was almost like I was walking in a giant blue circuit board. I stood in the center of the room, the area had two different teleporters and a light like the one I used to teleport here.

"I'm guessing I have to go through each teleporter to find the switches." I said.

" _Correct, each of the switches is on each path."_

"I better get moving." I used the first teleporter.

I found myself no longer in a cyberspace, but on floating rock formations like the ones in Bastia. Looking around me I saw plants growing ingredients that I knew certain player killers used to make poisons. The ones I had seen the most of were ones that players could kill themselves with in certain quantities. Just like in Bastia there was nothing separating the ledge from the players. I had watched as I had seen at least three players jump off the sides in suicide. A few other players ate the poison fruits and they succumbed to HP drainage.

"What is this?"

" _Chambers of Self Deprived. Murderers are not the only players condemned. Here are players who attempted to escape Aincrad by suicide. From poisons to the abyss, they can kill themselves as much as they like, but cannot escape until they die with the game. Condemned players normally respawn after thirty to sixty second intervals."_ Mei explained.

"So the other areas were made for murderers and these get this one area?"

" _The developers felt that player killers would high likely be most of the Hollow Area's population. So they made a wider area to fit them all and space them out."_

"Unbelievable." I found it hard to believe all this was happening without anyone from Aincrad knowing. There were so many times I could have wound up here before. I made my way through the rooms, I would often find players jumping off the side desperately trying to kill themselves and finally escape the game. I often got the urge to stop them, I've had to save someone from suicide once or twice back in the real world. I know one of my friends back in Sweden hung themselves because he didn't want the life his family was forcing him to live. Then in middle school I had to help my girlfriend battle depression. Even though she defeated her battle against self destruction, I still was forced to smell the stench of black roses.

After reaching the second section of the chambers, one of the condemned player came to me. He looked like he had far more than lost it.

"You...PK'er...please...KILL ME!" He grabbed my shoulders and shook me.

"Calm down!" I shook him off me.

"Calm down?... I can't take anymore! All my friends are dead and we've been trapped in here over 2 years now!... I wish we never met that Beater... JUST PLEASE KILL ME! I CAN'T DO IT MYSELF, IT WON'T WORK!"

"Back off!" I was backing up slowly.

"...GIVE IT TO ME PLEASE!" He reached for my sword, he was freaking me out.

"I said back off!" I shoved him back, but he kept coming for me, not expecting him to lunge at me, I was floored by his weight. I pushed him off of me, but I accidently tossed him over the side. His cycle of suffering had just been restarted.

" _His guild died because of their recklessness. He has no reason to blame your friend Lukas."_

"Just shut up." I snapped.

I eventually made it to the last section of the chambers. Along the way I seen a player named Arvin, the first to officially die in-game. He tried to disconnect from the game by jumping off a ledge and out of Aincrad. I didn't know what made him think that would work. I eventually came across what I thought was what I was looking for.

"Is this it Mei?"

" _Yes, that's one out of three."_

"Well, there's one." I activated the switch.

" _The Second won't be as easy Lukas."_ Mei warned me.

I made my way back to where I started and went to the second teleporter. The area resembled the building I found the pendent, although the walls were more of a golden brass color. I Looked down a corridor to see a player try to open a large chest. The chest was a mimic and engulfed the players upper half. It chomped off the players legs and they fell limply onto the ground a burst into pixels.

"This is sick." I said out loud.

" _This is the Halls of Avarice, players who acquire orange cursors through thievery are found here. They are free to loot the chests until the game is cleared, with false hope of finding a key. While there is no key for the condemned, there is a key that opens the door to the switch"_ Mei room had five chambers, the uppermost chamber had a locked door. I threw a stone at a chest and the mimics were very high level. After having way too many close calls, I came across a silver chest that three other players couldn't open.

"We have to open this chest before the others get here!" One of them said.

"Quiet, they'll hear you."

"Shit, someone's found us!"

"Surrender that chest and I'll spare you from another round of misery." I pulled out my sword

"Take it from us." They all pulled out their axes. Instead of my usual defensive style I went straight to attack mode. I used a Rage Spike sword skill and impaled one of them. His HP depleted when I ripped out the blade. I blocked an axe and kicked the attacker away. I grabbed his head and cut his neck.

"Damn you!" The last one attacked me, while charging he left me too big of an opening, I used a Vorpal Strike skill and dashing past him while delivering a hard strike. He burst into pixels.

"I warned you." I got a closer look at the chest. I noticed it had the hollow mark where there usually was a keyhole. I held the pendent up, it flashed for second and the chest opened. Inside the chest was The Key of Sworn Riches. Getting what I assumed I needed I returned to the locked door. I tried to avoid any condemned player if I could as well as not stray too close to chests, some mimics activated when some players walked within a certain proximity of them.

I arrived at the door, and unlocked it, it was a small room. There was a switch on a large golden statue. It made me think of Plutus, the god of wealth. I activated the switch and the ground trembled briefly and the statues eyes flashed.

"Mei, what the hell?" I then heard screams of condemned players

" _Every chest has turned into mimics, and they're coming this way. You have to get out of there!"_ Mei said with urgency. I made a run for it, I looked one way and say a hoard of mimics.

"Oh shit." I said and ran, the path in front of me had another hoard so I had to change directions, only to be cut off. "Damn it." I decided to jump over the pack in front of me, I barely cleared it. I was able to put some distance between me and the other mimics, just as I made it back to the teleporter a mimic clamped on my leg. I repeated kicked at it. I noticed the other mimics were closing in. I hit it with my sword and it released me. I made to the teleporter and escaped.

 **Halls of the Expelled**

"That was close." I said catching my breath. I walked to the center lights and looked at it's teleport menu, there was a new level listed, the **Treasonous Trench**.

" _There is a high chance Philia may be down there." Mei said._

"Then I better hustle." Without wasting time I teleported to the new area.

 **Treasonous Trench**

The first thing that struck me was the cold. The area looked like a wide ravine caught in a blizzard,rough winds and heavy snow.

" _Treasonous Trench, players that kill members of their party or guild are found here. Many of them freeze from the cold as their health depletes."_

"I can think of a few people that deserve to be here." I walked took a few steps forward and I found a familiar face frozen in a block of ice. It was Copper, once a beta tester like me. Based on what Kirito told me, he partied with him to complete a quest but attempted a monster PK to steal the reward. His HP slowly depleted from the cold.

" _There is a fortress in this area, it's the most probable place to find her."_

"Than that's where I need to go.

* * *

 **Well there you go, remember to review and tell me what you think.**


	15. Vengeance and Forgiveness

**Here it is, sorry for the wait.**

* * *

" _There is a fortress to the north of you Lukas. There's a good chance that's where she is."_ Mei told me. I ran through the frigid area, the cold certainly was getting to me. I found what I assumed to be the fortress. My map said it was called **Castle of Craven Souls.** I ran in without much thought.

"Philia, where the hell are you!?" I yelled running down the corridors. I soon ran into three Laughing Coffin grunts.

"Look who showed up to the party." one said maniacally.

"We knew you would show up."

"Too bad, you're too late!"

"Out of my way bastards!" I threatened.

"Not a chance- Agh!" I didn't let him finish as I killed him with a Rage Spike sword skill.

 **Unknown Area in Castle of Craven Souls - 3rd Person**

"..."

"Yeah! Nice work Philia!" PoH said maniacally.

"You're here... That must mean you've finished all your preparations... If that's the case let me go already! You promised you'd release me once you'd done what you needed to do. I have to go help Lukas," Philia wanted to make things right.

"Well you really did perform your duties very impressively. In fact he should be saying his last words any minute now."

"Huh? What do you mean!?" Philia was on the verge of panic.

"What's the matter Philia? It looks like someone's just given you an unexpected present!"

"Y-You said you wouldn't kill Lukas!" Philia realized he had tricked her.

"Huh? Did I say something like that? How rude of me... The thing is, I've used that trap on lots and lots of people...and not one of them has been seen again. Sorry, I should have told you that." PoH smirked upon seeing the look on Philia's face.

"You...you lied to me!"

"Well, I think it was more of a misunderstanding... And anyway, I've apologized now, so...Oh! I like that! You look very nice indeed when you're crying!"

"Lukas, I'm coming for you!" Philia was about to run to help him.

"Woah there! Hold on a second! Don't be so hasty! That Swed is a tough cookie...I'm sure he'll be fine, don't stop crying though, I like it, now listen to me."

"...Lukas ..." Philia regretted not heeding Lukas's warning.

"You've been a big help. Thanks to you, there's no one who can stand in my way anymore...That's why I'm planning on holding a big old party to express my gratitude."

"What are you trying to do...?"

"If SAO had been cleared, the players would be able to log out, and I would lose my prey, but thanks to you, I can keep killing forever. There's no reason for my fun to ever end! That's why I'm grateful, so I want to have a party!"

"Killing forever...? Your fun will never end...? What on earth are you talking about?..."

"Well, this is what we chose. When we used that trap to kill Lukas, we were choosing a world where murder could be enjoyed forever. It was down to us! All of it! Every last bit! You and me, we decided it all."

"No!... NOOO!" Philia couldn't believe what she had done.

"Welcome to the Laughing Coffin Philia. It's just the place for a dirty, rotten murderer like you, now since we're all orange friends, how about we all go out and kill some more people in celebration?"

"I'm not your friend! I'm nothing like you! I'm...I'm..."

"Hmm? What is it? You don't like killing people? Why don't you look excited?! Ha!" Philia's legs felt week and she fell to her knees.

"...What have I done?..." She said to no one in particular.

"Want me to kill you?" PoH kicked her across the room. "Oh sorry, I didn't mean to kick you. Did that hurt? Of course it didn't, after all this is SAO."

"All I wanted was to be with Lukas." PoH began to bash her head against the ground.

"That's not good, you can't think like that, this is all your fault you know? He was right to warn you, but he was wrong to trust you, you know that!" he kicked her across the ground again.

"I'm sorry, Lukas."

"Huh, that's all? I was hoping for a better reaction, too bad, I guess you're useless to me now," PoH drew his Mate Chopper and slowly drove it into Philia's neck. "Time to die."

"NOT ON MY WATCH!" PoH released Philia when his arm was cut off by Lukas's sword. Philia came to her senses when she hit the ground. She couldn't believe who stood between her and her would-be killer.

"L-Lukas," she didn't know whether to be happy he's alive or beg for forgiveness.

"Thank goodness... I was worried sick about you Philia."

"Heh... You still continue to be a thorn in my side." PoH was quite annoyed to see Lukas alive.

"For once the shithead steps out of the shadows, how does it feel not having your guard dogs around?"

"Lukas... Why... Why are you...?" Philia was still in disbelief.

"I told you already Philia, I'm gonna get you out of here, and I'm keeping my word, may God smite me otherwise."

"But Lukas...I ...I betrayed you... I-"

"It's my fault for not knowing what was going on." Lukas interrupted her. "Leaving you alone, letting him get to you, I should've caught on sooner."

"L-Lukas... I'm sorry! I'm so sorry...!"

"Don't apologize, you have nothing to say sorry for." Lukas turned his attention to PoH.

"What a heartwarming scene, makes we want to vomit." PoH spat. "Regardless you are too late to stop me Swed."

"What are you scheming this time?"

"A while ago, I killed someone, my hollow heart pounded with excitement, that's when everything started, I realized I wanted to kill humans too. It's so much fun, the looks on their faces and their agonizing screams, music to my ears, I even got a special reward for doing so." He revealed a Hollow Mark on his hand.

"No way..." Lukas said under his breath.

"Then I discovered the implementation feature this world has, I found out about your girlfriend too, at first I didn't think it mattered if I was human or not so long as I can keep killing."

"You're sick." Lukas snapped

"But the assault team is getting closer and closer to clearing the game, which would make me disappear, I don't like the sound of that, so I decided to use my credentials to update Aincrad with Hollow Data, it will become a world of Hollows where you can kill people forever and ever!"

"Lukas, this guy can't be serious can he?" Philia was beyond terrified by PoH's inanity.

"I wish he wasn't, but he is." Lukas replied.

"Things were going quite smootly, but then that AI had to kill you and drag you here."

"Interfering AI?..." Lukas said under his breath, he then realized what PoH meant.

"But it looks like I'm going to have to kill you myself, I'll be doing my other self in Aincrad a favor." PoH brandished his Mate Chopper.

"Stay back Philia." Lukas readied his sword.

"I want to help you." She refuted.

"Please... This is personal."

"...Okay." Philia stood down.

"I've been waiting for this." Lukas said under his breath, Philia was then struck by a Numb Dagger thrown by PoH, she slumped to the ground paralyzed

"Don't worry, I'll kill you first so you don't have to watch her die."

"Heh heh heh..."

"Hmm, what's so funny Swed?"

"You know what, you were right about one thing, killing is part of this game, so I can kill you and your guild without regrets!" Lukas made a mad dash toward PoH. The sound of metal colliding echoed through the room. Anger added to the power Lukas's swings, but PoH knew he wasn't as good with swords as he was with daggers. PoH aimed for his head. He was able to dodge but received a light cut above his left eye. Lukas countered with a thrust attack, but it only grazed PoH's side, he was kicked away. Recollecting himself, Lukas ran at PoH again, who easily blocked the attack. He threw a left hook at PoH, knocking him off guard. Lukas activated a Rage Spike sword skill, which PoH deflected the and Lukas's sword's durability points were depleted, and blade split in two. Lukas received a slash across the stomach, sending him to the ground in pain. PoH began to slowly drive his blade into his left arm, grinning in delight as his pain.

"How does it feel Swed, it hurt? Good." PoH spit on his face."Killing my guild, to cleanse yourself, hah! What a joke." he then drove his blade into Lukas's other arm.

"Fuck you!"

"The scream of agony and hatred, I love it. Tell me Swed, do you think you're any better than me? You think you're a hero, but you're a killer, just like me." PoH failed to notice Philia, she was still paralyzed, but was able to fight it just enough. She slid the dagger Lukas had lost when he fell into the trap across the floor into his reach.

"I'm nothing like you!" Lukas angrilly thrust his dagger into PoH's left eye. It was a shallow hit and didn't do any serious damage, but it did seperate them. "I'M GONNA KILL YOU!" Lukas ran in a blind rage at PoH, who tried his best to defend against Lukas's onslaught. He could see in Lukas's eyes, there was nothing but anger and hatred directed toward him. PoH swung his weapon at Lukas, but he stabbed his weapon arm, causing PoH to drop his weapon and Lukas followed up with a left hook to the face. Lukas slashed away at PoH, his HP dropping lower and lower. One hit managed to paralyze PoH due to his dagger's ability. He grabbed the immobilized PoH by the hair and bent his head back, giving him a clear shot to his neck.

"Bränna med de fördömda i helvetet!" Lukas repeatedly drove his dagger into PoH's neck. It was around the eleventh hit that PoH's HP hit zero and his corpse burst into pixels.

 **Lukas** **POV**

I watched the pixels of what were once PoH's body vanish with satisfaction, he wasn't the real one, but it certainly helped let out some of the hatred I had for him.

"Lukas." I turned around to see Philia was no longer paralyzed and standing.

"I'm sorry you had to see that." I walked closer to her, and she immediately embraced me. I was stunned for a second, but I reciprocated the embrace. "Thank God you're okay."

"I'm so sorry Lukas, I'm so sorry.." she buried her face in my chest, I could feel the dampness of her tears on my shirt.

"I told you already, you don't have to be sorry."

"I betrayed you, I almost got you killed, how can you be so forgiving?"

"I know in my heart you're not the kind of person who would do something like that on your own, you're a good person Philia... and I care too much about you, because I... because I love you." I had finally said it.

"What?"

"I love you Philia, after coming as far as we did together, I realized how much you mean to me, and how much I truly care about you, and I don't want to leave the Hollow Area without you. "

"Lukas... do you really mean it?" Her guilt seemed to be replaced with shock and disbelief.

"I meant every word, and I'll prove it." I pulled her closer and my lips landed on hers, while taken aback at first, she soon melted into the kiss. This feeling of warmth and love, I hadn't felt it in so long, I didn't care about my redemption anymore, all I cared about was keeping the promise I had made to her, that I would get her out of this place."Do you believe me now?"

"I believe you Lukas, I love you too." She gave me a loving smile. As much as I wanted this moment to last, I had to let her know some things.

"Phila, it's about time I told you the truth about my situation in here. I'm a condemned player, an orange player who was killed back in Aincrad. Condemned players remain alive in the Hollow Area until the game is cleared, where they die with the game."

"Died in Aincrad?... Wait, how were you able to get back to Aincrad?" Philia looked at me confused.

"This mark here, it created a loophole, it should only be on living players or hollows, but I got it when a living player here with the mark attacked me and I killed him, so the game sees me as a living player here, but not in Aincrad. There I'm basically a ghost."

"So if your a condemned player, does that mean I'm-?"

"No, you're alive, the Monument of Life says so, we just got to fix this error and we can free you."

"How do you know this Lukas?"

"An AI told me, she calls herself the Overseer of the Hollow Area, she's been speaking to me under the radar, she told me everything, and in order to get out of here we need to take out every boss and get to the lower levels."

"So where do we go now?"

" _The other side of this fortress is where you two need to go."_ Mei answered, although Philia couldn't hear her.

"We got to get to the other side of this fortress, that's where we need to be."

"Alright, I'm ready when you are."

"Then let's go Philia." We walked out of the room, I kicked PoH's weapon away on the way out. Soon when we were walking I stopped for a second, and I looked upwards. "She may have my heart now, but I will never stop loving you, dear Mila in heaven." I said but not loud enough for anyone to hear.

"Lukas, you okay?" Philia asked concerned about me.

"I'm alright Philia." I caught up with her and we set out to get through the fortress.  
.

* * *

 **Well there it is after quite a wait, I don't have any excuse for the delay. I hope it was up to par. I think I use too much "...". Remember to review and tell me what you think. Also if anyone knows the name of the daggers the Laughing Coffin people use to paralyze people are called? I'm pretty sure they're called Numbing Daggers, but I'm not sure. Another thing, give me some feefback on my battle scenes, I feel like I'm lackluster on those but I want to hear from you guys.**


End file.
